BUCHAREST (Reuters) -The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Romania's far-right presidential candidate to overturn a domestic court decision to annul a December presidential election.
Calin Georgescu was the frontrunner after the first round of presidential elections on Nov. 24. However, Romania's highest court annulled the ballot two days before the second round in December, citing allegations of Russian interference in his favour, which Moscow has denied.
Georgescu turned to Europe's top human rights court after failing to reverse the decision by Romania's Constitutional Court in local courts, triggering protests by his supporters.
He had asked that the ballot be resumed from the second round.
The court cancellation came after state documents showed Georgescu, a critic of NATO who has praised Romania's 1930s fascist leaders, had benefited from an unfair social media campaign likely to have been orchestrated by Russia.
An opinion poll released late on Monday showed Georgescu remained voters' top choice ahead of a re-run of the vote in May.
Conducted by pollster Avangarde and cited by online news website hotnews.ro, the survey showed Georgescu gaining 38% of the vote in the first round on May 4.
Crin Antonescu, the proposed single candidate of the pro-European coalition government would get 25% of the vote, followed by Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, who said he could run as an independent, who would get 17%.
Elena Lasconi, the leader of the opposition centrist Save Romania Union, who had made it into the now-voided second round with Georgescu, would get 6%.
The poll surveyed 1,354 people between Jan. 10-16 and has a margin of error of 2.6%.
It remains unclear whether Georgescu, who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, will be allowed to run for president again. In October of last year, the top court banned another far-right politician from running, in a move critics said overstepped court powers.
Romania has the longest land border with Ukraine of any European Union and NATO member state. It has helped export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, trained Ukrainian fighter pilots and donated a Patriot air defence battery to Kyiv.
(Reporting by Luiza IlieEditing by Bernadette Baum and Sharon Singleton)
2025-01-21T14:50:20Z