A Romanian court has ordered a recount of votes following the unexpected victory of a pro-Russian and pro-fascist candidate.

The Constitutional Court of Romania has decided to conduct a recount of the votes from the presidential election, where a little-known candidate who admires Putin and criticizes NATO emerged victorious in the first round. The excessive influence of the social media platform TikTok played a significant role in his success, leading authorities to suspect foul play.

Source. This was reported by Bloomberg.

Kelín Georgescu, previously associated with the far-right nationalist party "Alliance for the Union of Romanians," gained "mass popularity and preferential treatment" on TikTok, which violated Romania's electoral laws, as indicated by an analysis from the Supreme Council of Defense – the body responsible for security.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who finished in 3rd place, lodged a complaint citing irregularities at several polling stations. Consequently, the Constitutional Court instructed a recount of the votes from the election held last Sunday.

In that election, Georgescu garnered 22.9%, despite having a rating of less than 10% just a week before the voting, where he was in 6th place.

Ciolacu, who was leading in the polls, ended up in 3rd place, losing to liberal candidate Elena Lasconi by about 3,000 votes, with both candidates advancing to the second round.

The second round is scheduled for December 8. Additionally, parliamentary elections are taking place next Sunday. According to the Constitutional Court, the vote recount is expected to be completed by late evening on December 1.

The head of the Electoral Commission, Toni Greblă, stated that if a decision for a repeat vote is made, the first round could take place on December 15, and the second round might be postponed to December 29.

Georgescu not only actively utilized TikTok but also received an astonishing number of views. In doing so, TikTok violated electoral legislation by not labeling his videos as materials from a candidate in the elections, noted the Defense Council.

According to the Council, this significantly increased the candidate's visibility and impacted the voting results.

Furthermore, the Defense Council indicated that attempts to influence the election took place through cyberattacks and expressed serious suspicion that Russia might be behind them, as reported by Politico.

In Romania, TikTok has 8 million users, and for the country's residents, the internet is the primary source of news, surpassing television and print media. Georgescu capitalized on this, as stated by Kit Killy, coordinator of the Bulgarian-Romanian Digital Media Observatory: he "effectively" used TikTok "to convey simple nationalist messages that resonated with voters dissatisfied with major political groups."

However, there were significant violations that greatly enhanced Georgescu's visibility, researchers note. They estimate that TikTok algorithms were manipulated to promote Georgescu's account through fake accounts as part of a coordinated campaign.

Alternatively, payments were made to popular bloggers – opinion leaders online – for his promotion.

Disinformation expert Felix Kartte from Stiftung Mercator reported that 5,000 suspicious accounts linked to Georgescu were identified, which acted in coordination.

Background. It is worth noting that the current Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu received 19.15% of the votes in the first round and did not advance to the next stage. Following this, the politician decided to resign.