Romania carries out searches in election financing probe after vote annulled

By Luiza Ilie and Octav Ganea

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romanian prosecutors searched several properties on Saturday as they probe illegal financing in a presidential candidate’s election campaign, a day after the top court annulled the ballot following accusations of Russian meddling.

The shock court ruling plunged the European Union and NATO member into institutional chaos, raising fears that public trust in the state could be eroded and that the pro-Western course of a staunch Ukraine ally could be jeopardised.

Friday’s ruling came after declassified documents showed the electoral process had been spoiled through vote manipulation, campaign irregularities and non-transparent funding.

Prosecutors said on Saturday three searches had taken place in the central city of Brasov.

They have not named the candidate whose campaign is being investigated, but the declassified documents focused on the campaign of Calin Georgescu – a far-right, pro-Russian critic of NATO – who surged to victory in the Nov. 24 first-round vote after polling in single digits in the run-up.

“The searches target the possible involvement of an individual in the illegal financing of the electoral campaign of a candidate for the Presidency of Romania, through the use of sums of money… (that) could come from the commission of crimes, being subsequently introduced into a money laundering process,” prosecutors said in a statement.

In one of the unclassified documents, Romania’s intelligence agency said Georgescu – who wants to end Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion – was massively promoted on social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid promotion.

Georgescu said on Friday the court’s decision to annul the election amounted to a “coup”. He urged election authorities to disregard the ruling. He has declared zero funds spent in the campaign.

Russia has denied interfering in the election. TikTok denies giving Georgescu special treatment, saying his account was labelled as a political account and treated like any other.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday Romanians must have confidence their elections are free of foreign malign influence. British Foreign Minister David Lammy said he was “concerned” by the reports of Russian interference.

A second-round vote to decide the election had been planned for Sunday until the court’s ruling.