Romanian court orders recount of presidential vote

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00:00Days after an election that sent shockwaves through Romania's political landscape, there

00:05may yet be room for another twist.

00:08The country's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a recount of the 9.4 million ballots

00:13cast last weekend in order to rule out fraud.

00:17The decision was prompted by a complaint against pro-EU candidate Elena Lasconi, who came

00:23in second place and who's been accused of violating electoral campaign laws.

00:29Her Save Romania union party rejected the allegations, saying they were politically

00:34motivated.

00:35Some people want to stay in power at any cost, even at the cost of democracy.

00:41Any day of postponing the campaign for the second round puts democracy in danger.

00:47Lasconi beat incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu by less than 3,000 votes, setting

00:53up a second-round showdown against far-right candidate Călin Georgescu.

00:58An outsider who was polling at around 5% just days before the election, Georgescu won

01:04the first round with nearly 23% of votes following an aggressive social media campaign.

01:11The surprise result has sparked daily protests in the Romanian capital, where many expressed

01:17worries over Georgescu's pro-Russian and anti-EU rhetoric.

01:23We don't want a fascist leader who will bring war to our borders.

01:29The Romanian presidency said Thursday it had found evidence of cyber-attacks aimed at influencing

01:34the electoral process and openly accused social media platform TikTok of giving preferential

01:41treatment to a candidate without explicitly naming Georgescu.

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