Romania carries out searches in election financing probe after vote annulled
World
Romania carries out searches in election financing probe after vote annulled
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian prosecutors searched several properties on Saturday in an investigation into potential illegal financing in the country's presidential election, a day after the top court annulled the ballot following accusations of Russian meddling.
The court ruled on Friday that the election should be held again, plunging Romania, a member of the European Union and NATO, into institutional chaos and raising concern that public trust in the state could be eroded.
Prosecutors have not named the candidate whose campaign is being investigated, but documents declassified by the national security council this week focused on the campaign of Calin Georgescu - a far-right, pro-Russian critic of NATO.
Georgescu - who wants to end Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, had attracted only single-digit support in opinion polls before the Nov. 24 first-round vote but surged to first place in that round, raising questions about the validity of the election.
A second-round vote to decide the election had been planned for Sunday, until the court's ruling. No date has been set yet for the re-run.
The declassified documents showed the electoral process had been spoiled through vote manipulation, campaign irregularities and non-transparent funding.
Prosecutors said on Saturday three searches had taken place in the central city of Brasov.
"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," prosecutors said in a statement.
Russia has denied accusations by Romanian officials of meddling in the election.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by TASS news agency on Saturday as saying "We are deeply indifferent to what they are doing there, trying to justify their machinations," commenting on the investigation into Russia's possible interference.
In one of the unclassified documents, Romania's intelligence agency said Georgescu was massively promoted on social media platform TikTok through coordinated accounts, recommendation algorithms and paid promotion.
TikTok denies giving Georgescu special treatment, saying his account was labelled as a political account and treated like any other.
Georgescu said on Friday the court's decision to annul the election amounted to a "coup". He urged election authorities to disregard the ruling. He has declared zero funds spent in the campaign.
