Romania Court Orders a Recount After Surprise Election Result

A top court issued the ruling just days after an ultranationalist outsider unexpectedly won the most votes in the first round of presidential elections held Sunday.

Political turmoil deepened in Romania on Thursday after the country’s top court called for a recount of all the ballots cast in the first round of a presidential election, just days after a little-known ultranationalist won the most votes.

Calin Georgescu — an often pro-Russia candidate who had been dismissed before the election as an extremist with no chance of winning — garnered 22.9 percent of the votes. Analysts credited his use of TikTok and other social media for his strong showing.

Mr. Georgescu is set to face Elena Lasconi, a centrist mayor and former journalist, in a runoff on Dec. 8. She won 19.2 percent of the vote, slightly more than Marcel Ciolacu, the center-left prime minister.

The recount may disrupt the runoff. If the first-round results are not certified, Romania cannot move on to the second round.

The Constitutional Court of Romania considered the case because Cristian Vasile Terhes, one of the presidential candidates, made a complaint, alleging irregularities.

The Supreme Council of National Defense, which oversees national security, said in a statement on Thursday that there had been “cyberattacks” aimed at undermining the voting process in Romania — a NATO member that shares borders with Ukraine — as well as social cohesion. The council is headed by President Klaus Iohannis and includes the prime minister and other senior members of the government.

“Romania, along with other states on NATO’s Eastern Flank, has become a priority for the hostile actions of some state and nonstate actors,” the statement said, singling out Russia.

It also criticized TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company, saying the platform had violated electoral laws because it had not identified Mr. Georgescu as a candidate. On Tuesday, Romania’s National Audiovisual Council called on the European Commission to investigate the role of TikTok in the vote, Reuters reported.

TikTok rebutted Romania’s claims in an emailed statement to The New York Times on Thursday. It said that Mr. Georgescu’s account was labeled a political account “in the same way as every other candidate on TikTok, and subject to exactly the same rules and restrictions.”

TikTok said that it was “categorically false to claim his account was treated differently to any other candidate.”

The platform added that it “took action” within 24 hours on videos that the Romanian authorities flagged because they “lacked identifiers that the candidates themselves were legally required to add.”

Mr. Georgescu, who was not backed by any party and was far behind in opinion polls, appears to have surged thanks to his TikTok campaign. He has about 450,000 followers, and many of his videos have been viewed more than one million times.

He built his brand on a tough-guy athletic image — running, practicing martial arts, riding horses. He edited his suit-wearing, straight-talking speaking engagements to include dramatic, almost ominous music, big subtitles and graphics.

“A candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate,” the Supreme Council of National Defense said in its statement, without specifying the candidate.

“The visibility of that candidate increased significantly in relation to the other candidates,” the statement said.

Romania is also preparing for a parliamentary election on Sunday that will set the shape of the next government.

It is unclear how much the recount will ripple through the presidential election. Toni Grebla, the president of the country’s official electoral authority, said it would be “absolutely impossible” to finish the recount by Friday, which is when the court called for another hearing.

His agency, the Permanent Electoral Authority, oversees the organization and conduct of elections. He pledged to “analyze and comply” with the court’s decision, but he said that he had yet to receive it. Either way, he said, it would be an enormous logistical task to count nine million votes, stored across 42 warehouses.

“I don’t think this can be done overnight,” he said.

The World of TikTok

• Women Playing Games: In a series of tongue-in-cheek TikTok videos purporting to highlight #WomenInMaleFields, female users are sharing stories of negative experiences dating men.
• TikTok Under Trump: TikTok is hoping that Donald Trump will prevent a U.S. ban on the Chinese-owned video app after promises to that effect on the campaign trail. His team says he will “deliver.”
• Saving an E-Commerce Business in Indonesia: When the government effectively forced TikTok to shut down its Shop feature, the company quickly struck an unusual deal with a local company to bring it back.
• Teens and Mental Health: Thirteen states and the District of Columbia sued TikTok, accusing the company of creating an intentionally addictive app that harmed children and teenagers while making false claims to the public about its commitment to safety.
• A Pipeline to Hollywood?: What happens after you go viral on TikTok is almost as uncertain as the possibility of going viral in the first place. For a select few, you could get a TV show.