Last winter‚ Romanias political landscape faced an un-expected shake-up when the Constitutional Court confirmed first-round presidential election results. The high-profile decision came after wide spread concerns about vote counting accuracy
The election process (which involved about 9‚4 million votes) needed extra checking due to various reported issues: the Central Election Bureau had to re-count every single ballot. During the vote-verification phase electoral officials worked non stop to meet tight deadlines; they used special scanning equipment to process all voting documents
The most surprising outcome was the strong showing of an un-known far-right candidate who managed to get more votes than traditional party nominees. This un-precedented result made many experts question possible foreign involvement in the electoral process - specifically from near by Russia whose influence in East-European politics has been growing
The Constitutional Courts final ruling which came after through examination of all materials didnt find any major problems: they gave green-light to election results with a unanimous vote. The whole re-counting operation took place between late fall and early winter showing Romanian institutions commitment to electoral transparency