ROMANIAN COURT ANNULS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION – AUR holds moment of silence for democracy in Romania
Romania’s Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) held what they called a moment of silence for democracy on Sunday which should have been the second round of the country’s presidential election.
The country’s constitutional court annulled the ongoing presidential election after allegations of Russian meddling and on Friday ruled the entire process, which had been due to conclude this weekend, would have to be re-run.
AUR leader George Simion, who had been the party’s presidential candidate, said his party was supporting Calin Georgescu, an independent who won a shock victory in the first round on Nov. 24.
Georgescu and his opponent, centrist Elena Lasconi, slammed the decision to cancel the election, but Social Democrat Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu supported the move on Friday, calling it “the only correct solution.”
The response to the move by the court has plunged Romania, a member of the European Union and NATO, into institutional chaos and raised concern that public trust in the state could be eroded.
