site.btaRomania's Central Election Bureau Rejects Calin Georgescu's Candidacy for Presidential Election

Romania's Central Election Bureau has decided to reject the candidacy of Calin Georgescu for the presidential elections, local media reported on Sunday. They refer to information from the leader of the Romanian far-right party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion.

There are more than 200 Georgescu supporters and an increased police and gendarmerie presence in front of the institution. Law enforcement officials had to use tear gas after some of the protesters tried to break through the cordon and enter the building. One policeman was injured, Digi24 reported. 

"Romania is in a dictatorship," Anamaria Gavrila, the president of Romania's far-right Party of Young People (PYP), wrote on her official Facebook account. 

The leader of the AUR, George Simion, also posted a comment on Facebook. 

"The rejection of the candidacy of Calin Georgescu is a new abuse and a continuation of the coup d'état carried out on December 6. Down with Ciolacu, down with the dictators," he wrote. 

"The Central Election Bureau should state exactly why it rejected the registration of Calin Georgescu's candidacy in the presidential elections because it will not work without evidence", former Romanian President Traian Basescu told Romanian national television. He stressed that the Bureau must clearly show what conditions and articles Georgescu violated. According to Basescu, the main one who benefits from the rejection of Georgescu's candidacy is George Simion.

The Central Election Bureau is to come out with motives for the rejection later this evening.

The first global reaction came from the United States and billionaire Ilon Musk. "This is crazy," he wrote on his account on the social network X.

"A direct hit to the heart of world democracy! I have only one message left! If democracy falls in Romania, the whole democratic world will collapse! This is just the beginning. It is that simple. Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!" Georgescu wrote on Facebook and X.

Following Sunday's decision of the Central Election Bureau, there is a 24-hour period in which appeals can be filed with the Constitutional Court. It in turn has another 48 hours to come up with a decision. 

On Saturday, Romania's Constitutional Court rejected two appeals against the candidacy of far-right politician Calin Georgescu to run in May's presidential elections. A day earlier, on Friday ( March 7), Georgescu submitted his candidacy as an independent candidate. 

He surprisingly received the most support in the first round of Romania's presidential elections on November 24. Shortly before the run-off, however, the Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round because of suspicions of interference in the electoral process by Russia. Moscow rejects these accusations.