BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A Romanian top court will ask for a vote recount in the first round of the country’s presidential election, Digi24 TV reported on Thursday citing court sources, after a shock victory for a far right candidate.
A spokesperson at the Constitutional Court declined to confirm or deny the report.
Having polled in single digits before Sunday’s vote, independent far-right politician Calin Georgescu, 62, surged to a victory that raised questions over how such a surprise had been possible in the European Union and NATO member state.
He will face centrist contender Elena Lasconi in a run-off on Dec. 8.
There were 9.46 million votes cast in the election.
Georgescu gained many votes from young voters and Romanians living abroad, and his campaign relied heavily on video sharing platform TikTok.
On Wednesday, a senior official at Romania’s telecoms regulator called for TikTok to be suspended pending an investigation into the platform’s potential role in the election.
TikTok has dismissed such concerns and says most candidates campaigned on its platform as well as on other social media sites.
In October, the Constitutional Court banned a far-right politician from running in the presidential election in a ruling analysts, civil rights groups and some parties said overstepped its powers.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie, Writing by Alan Charlish, Editing by William Maclean)
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