A top court in Romania has dramatically called for a recount of 9.4 million ballots in the nation’s presidential election.
It comes after a right-wing outsider soared to victory in the first round in a shocking upset to the establishment.
The victory of Călin Georgescu has sent panic through Romania’s political establishment. Critics and their corporate media allies have cast him as an authoritarian with Russian sympathies.
Romania is a NATO member and borders Ukraine.
The Constitutional Court of Romania ordered the recount Thursday after complaints of fraud from one of the candidates, Cristian Terhes, who received 1% of the vote.
The second-place candidate, Elena Lasconi, criticized the court’s intervention as a troubling and undemocratic move. Lasconi was set to face Georgescu in a runoff on December 8. However, the recount has thrown the election into turmoil.
“Extremism is fought by voting, not backstage games,” she said.