Forty-eight hours before Romanians were due to vote in a presidential runoff, the entire process was halted due to an unprecedented ruling by the Constitutional Court.

The court’s decision to annul the first round came after a far-right independent candidate, Calin Georgescu, came out of nowhere to lead the first round two weeks ago, amid accusations of Russian interference.

Georgescu has condemned the ruling as a coup and Romania may have to wait months to vote again.

Romania is a key NATO member on its eastern flank and shares a long border with Ukraine.

It is not the first Eastern European state to fend off Russia’s hybrid war, and the Constitutional Court has ruled that intelligence revelations of Russian interference are serious enough to put the presidential election on hold.

Moldova The recent presidential election took place amid alleged Russian interference and voter fraud across the Black Sea GeorgiaThe pro-Western opposition says the disputed elections there were marred by Kremlin interference.

The opinion polls showed almost neck-and-neck before Sunday’s race. Almost 19 million Romanians had the choice between Calin Georgescu and the liberal mayor and former television journalist Elena Lasconi.

Current polls even gave Lasconi a lead in the runoff election.

But on Wednesday, outgoing Romanian President Klaus Iohannis declassified the secret services Documents of the Supreme Council of National Defense This suggests that nearly 800 Tiktok accounts created by a “foreign state” in 2016 were suddenly activated at full capacity last month, supporting Georgescu.

Another 25,000 TikTok accounts had become active just two weeks before the first round.

Romania’s foreign intelligence service said Russia was the “enemy state” involved and had engaged in hybrid attacks, including tens of thousands of cyberattacks and other acts of sabotage.

Domestic intelligence attributed Georgescu’s sudden surge in popularity to a “highly organized” and “guerrilla” social media campaign involving identical messaging and social media influencers.

TikToks promoting him had not been flagged as election content, in breach of Romania’s laws, it said, while one account paid out $381,000 (£300,000) in a month to users who promoted Georgescu’s candidacy he said he paid nothing for his candidacy campaign.

This decision to release intelligence documents changed everything.

Constitutional Court judges met on Friday to consider a large number of applications to overturn the first round.

It was a complete reversal from a decision four days earlier that approved the first vote on November 24 after a full recount of 9.4 million votes.

In its one-sided ruling, the Constitutional Court said that in order to ensure the fairness and legality of the electoral process, it had unanimously decided to cancel the entire vote and that the government must set a new date for a repeat vote.

The court points to its constitutional duty to “ensure compliance with the procedure” in presidential elections.

It is emphasized that the decision is final and binding.

The President of Romania wields considerable power as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and with the task of appointing the Prime Minister.

Calin Georgescu, a self-described university teacher, was a relative unknown in the presidential race.

He denies being a fan of Vladimir Putin, although he sees the Russian leader as a “patriot and leader” and wants to end political and military aid to Ukraine.

“Zero. Everything stops,” he told the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford. “I just have to take care of my people. We have a lot of problems ourselves,” with words that reflect his Romania-first stance.

He says Romania should remain in international organizations such as the EU and NATO, but must end its “submissive” role.

He also condemns claims that Russia was behind his election success, saying the intelligence agency “lies.”

Years ago, the 62-year-old agricultural engineer held high-ranking official positions in the Romanian Ministry of the Environment and Foreign Affairs.

He is also a conspiracy theorist who believes man never landed on the moon and the Covid-19 pandemic never happened. despite the seven million deaths worldwidereported by the World Health Organization.

Read more: Far-right candidate vows to stop aid to Ukraine

Romanians are divided over the Constitutional Court’s decision.

“Today the Romanian state has trampled on democracy,” complained liberal candidate Elena Lasconi.

However, Crin Antonescu, former leader of the National Liberal Party, welcomed the court ruling and said he could not understand Lasconi’s reaction. “It’s just right, starting the whole race all over again,” he told Romanian media.

There was anger from supporters of Calin Georgescu.

“We are witnessing a lying political class that is afraid of losing power and is capable of any injustice to keep its power and positions,” Eugen, an entrepreneur from the western city of Timisoara, told the BBC.

Romanians who were less than enthusiastic about both candidates are unsure whether they should be happy that they don’t have to decide on Sunday or whether they should be worried about the future of Romania’s democracy.

The election will begin again in three to four months to give candidates a chance to gather support for their candidacy.

Meanwhile, incumbent President Klaus Iohannis has stated that he will remain in office until the next president is elected.

There is no reason why Georgescu cannot run again, even if he could face criminal proceedings over the allegations against him, which he denies.

Romania has just held parliamentary elections in which the centrist parties performed better than expected. The Social Democrats are likely to lead the next coalition government.

However, three far-right parties received a total of 32% of the vote, and one of them, George Simion’s AUR, came in second place.

Another uncertainty factor is the reaction of Georgescu supporters to the cancellation.

Will they take to the streets or try to support Calin Georgescu or another nationalist candidate when Romania finally returns to the ballot box?