The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today rejected an appeal against the annulment of Romania's presidential elections due to be held in late 2024, filed by the winner of the first round of the annulled vote, ultranationalist Calin Georgescu.
In December, Georgescu appealed to the ECtHR to have the court deal with the case "urgently" and suspend the Romanian Constitutional Court's decision on the annulment of the first round of the elections, invoking Article 39 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which allows the Strasbourg-based body to take "provisional" measures in urgent cases.
The seven judges who heard the case unanimously rejected Georgescu's request, "since it does not fall within the scope of Article 39".
"The Court of Justice shall only order provisional measures in cases of imminent risk of irreparable harm to one of the rights protected by the Convention," the judges said, stressing that such measures may only be adopted in "exceptional circumstances."
Ultranationalist Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round of the presidential elections on 24 November, with 23% of the vote, ahead of pro-European candidate Elena Lasconi (19%), but the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the first round of the elections on 6 December and ordered the electoral process to be restarted.
The unprecedented decision by the Constitutional Court - which is final - came after Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified information alleging that Russia had carried out a large-scale campaign, with thousands of social media accounts, to promote Georgescu on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.
A critic of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as an opponent of any military aid to Ukraine, Georgescu contested the annulment of the vote and filed several legal challenges.
Last week, the new Romanian coalition government, led by socialist Marcel Ciolacu, decided that new presidential elections would be held on May 4, with a possible second round on May 18 if none of the candidates obtains an absolute majority.
Georgescu denounced the decisions of the courts and the government as "a coup d'état" and thousands of his supporters took to the streets in early January to demand the reinstatement of the annulled electoral process and to protest against what they called a "stolen vote".
