The decision came days after the government asserted that there had been “cyberattacks” meant to undermine the vote and security council documents indicated possible Russian meddling.
Romania’s Constitutional Court on Friday canceled the final round of a pivotal presidential election with only two days before the vote, saying it needed to ensure the “correctness of the electoral process.”
The surprise decision, in a NATO member state that shares a border with Ukraine, came days after Romanian leaders raised allegations that “cyberattacks” had tried to undermine the vote. The court’s ruling was also the latest in a series of political upheavals across Europe, where right-wing and nationalist movements have surged this year.
Paywalled New York Times link.
I mean, this is better for Western Democracy, for sure, but it all seems like very thin evidence, sure Russia completely bumrushed the Romanian social media space and manipulated opinion, but it doesn’t seem like there was much if any direct hacking of the vote, so, they’re gonna get a do-over because they think people will change their votes? I’m glad to see it, and hopefully Moscow’s beard gets relegated to the dustbin where they belong, but it all feels like the opposite of Democratic to me, and even after saying that I wish we could have an annulment and revote on the last US Presidential election, because we’re headed for complete and utter destruction once Trump gets the keys again.
The Russian puppet candidate declared having spent 0 funds on his campaign. 0.
Meanwhile, people’s testimonies and evidence have come up of influencers being paid up to € 1k for promoting this guy’s campaign.
Moreover, these promotional videos have not been marked as being political propaganda, as required by law, they were heavily promoted after the campaign was over and were pushed to people’s feeds using proven bot networks…
yes, influence, and yet, in a democratic society, influence itself isn’t illegal. hacking of votes, physically preventing the vote, those things are illegal, but influence, in western culture once one reaches the age of aduluthood, then one is responsible for their own actions, and a functioning adult acting after having been influenced is not one of those things which the law usually recognizes as being actionable. little old ladies and scammers, sure, but not politics, so again, this is all very strange. welcome, i guess, but strange nonetheless.
