Romanian investigators searched several homes on Saturday, 7 December, investigating the illicit financing of a presidential candidate's campaign, a day after the country's Constitutional Court annulled the vote following reports of Russian interference.

Source: Reuters, as reported by European Pravda

Details:The decision to annul the election came after declassified documents showed that the electoral process had been tainted by vote manipulation, campaign violations and non-transparent funding.

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

While the candidate under investigation has not been named, declassified documents link the inquiry to Călin Georgescu's campaign. Georgescu, a far-right, pro-Russian critic of NATO, unexpectedly won the first round of voting on 24 November.

"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," the Romanian prosecutor's office said in a statement.

One of the declassified documents revealed that Romanian intelligence reported that Georgescu, who advocates for ceasing support for Ukraine, was extensively promoted on the social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms, and paid promotions.

On Friday, Georgescu described the court's decision to annul the election as a "coup d'état" and urged the electoral authorities to disregard the ruling. He also declared that no funds had been spent on his campaign.

Background: 

• First, the Romanian Constitutional Court recognised the validity of the first round of the presidential election, where the anti-Western Călin Georgescu shockingly emerged victorious. On Friday, voting in the second round began at polling stations abroad.
• However, on 6 December, after an urgent meeting, the Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round on the grounds that it had received many new requests for such a move and had reviewed information from intelligence agencies.
• The requests referred to declassified documents from the Supreme Council of National Defence, which revealed that the campaign of pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu was part of a coordinated foreign manipulation effort.

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