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Alta Ifland's avatar

These are all good points and I agree with most of them. Indeed, the question is: if some manipulation of the electorate takes place (through a TikTok campaign, for instance), is that enough to justify canceling the result? You say no, and I think you are right. The problem is that given the Russians' behavior--Dughin has recently made declarations that Romania will soon be Russian--and Romania's past with Russia, the pro-European part of the electorate is freaking out. The justification for the Court's decision is that the second round of voting would have coincided with the peak of Russian interference (and Georgescu would have won in an unfair way). On the other hand, it's likely he would have lost, because according to the latest polls the pro-European candidate was ahead. So there are speculations that maybe the judges wanted to favor the PSD candidate who was behind Lasconi. One small correction to your piece: the far-right candidate who was stopped from running was a she, not a he, Diana Sosoaca, who has made very strident declarations against homosexuals (among many other things). She would have never had any chance (she is the opposite of Georgescu's polished manners, a physically unappealing person). For those who are interested in more detailed descriptions about the actors in this tragi-comedy, this is my take: https://altaifland.substack.com/p/tiktok-water-energy-the-romanian

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Wolfgang Florey's avatar

I am very grateful to you, Yascha, for this clarification. Because you really have to distinguish between the actual falsification of elections through the incorrect counting of votes cast or other types of manipulation of election results and influencing the opinion of eligible voters in any way whatsoever. Influencing opinion is a common practice of political parties and there have long been all kinds of actors in this field - state and privately sponsored actors from domestic and foreign organisations. But one should actually assume that the voting decision itself is an act of free will on the part of the voter. It may be regrettable that the election decision was made one way or the other, but the sovereign in a democracy is the electorate.

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