Romania sets May as the date for new presidential elections Election news
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The first round is scheduled to take place on May 4, with the second round taking place on May 18 if no candidate from the first round obtains more than 50% of the votes.
The coalition government in Romania announced that it will hold new presidential elections next May, after the shock of the cancellation of the December elections amid allegations of Russian interference.
A cabinet meeting on Thursday approved the ruling party’s proposal to hold new presidential elections.
The first round is scheduled to take place on May 4, with the second round taking place on May 18 if no candidate from the first round obtains more than 50% of the votes.
The EU and NATO country, which borders Ukraine, was plunged into institutional chaos last year when Calin Georgescu, a little-known pro-Russian far-right politician, won the first presidential round on November 24.
Romanian officials said that Georgescu benefited from a massive social media campaign led by TikTok, and gave him preferential treatment, accusations that the platform denied.
Amid suspicions of Russian interference – something Moscow denied – Romania’s Supreme Court annulled the ballot and ordered the government to redo it in full.
Last month, the European Commission also opened formal proceedings against TikTok over its suspected failure to limit election interference, particularly in the Romanian vote.
Georgescu denounced the cancellation of the vote, calling it an “official coup.”
Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets on Sunday in Bucharest in the second protest last week against the cancellation of the original vote. The far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians party called for the protest.
They demanded the resignation of liberal President Klaus Iohannis, who remained in office until his successor was elected.
On Thursday, the government, headed by current Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, issued a decree stating that campaign materials before the next presidential election must be clearly labeled as electoral content and identify their sponsors.
Social media platforms will also be required to remove content that does not follow the rules within five hours of a request from Romanian election officials or risk fines ranging between 1 percent and 5 percent of their turnover.
However, Romanian human rights groups criticized the government for failing to consult the public before issuing the decree, warning that the new rules did not address the real issues of campaign financing.