The President of the Constitutional Court, Simina Tănăsescu, explained the reasons behind the decision to annul the 2024 presidential elections after the first round, citing serious violations of electoral rights and major irregularities in campaign financing.
According to her, the decision was a difficult one, but „assumed” and legally grounded.
Violation of electoral rights at the core of the decision
Simina Tănăsescu specified that the Court's decision was based on three types of major violations directly related to the Constitution.
"The reasons relate to the violation of voters' electoral rights, the violation of candidates' right to be elected, and the blatant disregard of campaign financing rules," stated the President of the CCR in an interview on TVR Info.
She emphasized that these reasons are "extremely solidly anchored" in the fundamental law and fall within the competence of the Constitutional Court.
"There are three reasons extremely solidly anchored in the text of our Constitution. They fall under the CCR's competence and are reasons that have been detailed in a decision that has undergone numerous legal tests, including the Venice Commission's test and the European Commission's test," Tănăsescu affirmed.
Late-emerging information after declassification of documents
The CCR President explained that some issues related to the electoral campaign only became clear in the final stage when the Court had to validate the elections as a whole.
"Some aspects are not within the Court's competence; they fall under other state institutions responsible for communication and campaigning (...). And the violation of citizens' fundamental rights, perhaps the most important of these rights - the citizens' right to vote, I really don't think we could have established that beforehand," Tănăsescu said.
She added that even the constitutional judges learned certain information only after the declassification of some documents.
"Together with the entire country, we became aware of declassified documents and needed time to process the information from those documents," she explained.
Suspicions regarding spectacular increases without declared expenses
An important element raised by the CCR President concerns possible major imbalances in the electoral campaign, as indicated in the documents analyzed by the Court.
"When declassified documents show that it's possible to have a spectacular popularity surge in an electoral campaign with absolutely nonexistent or at least declared as zero expenses, that's information we didn't have before and had to analyze from a constitutional perspective," stated Tănăsescu.
These aspects raised questions about compliance with financing rules and the fairness of the electoral process.
"It wasn't an easy decision, but it was assumed"
The President of the Constitutional Court emphasized that the annulment of the elections was not a desired option but one imposed by the observed situation.
"It wasn't an easy decision, it wasn't something we wanted, it wasn't something we ever thought we would face," she stated.
Nevertheless, the decision was made "calmly" and following a thorough analysis.
"It was an assumed decision, a calm decision, in the sense of presenting arguments, information. They required time to understand and think about the arguments and to decipher what useful information they could represent," Tănăsescu added.