Bucharest, 29 November 2024 (dpa/MIA) - A court-ordered recount of all ballots from the first round of Romania's presidential election got under way on Friday.

The process put in motion by the Constitutional Court is highly controversial because the recount is not taking place under the same conditions as the normal counting process in Romania.

There are accusations on the one hand that the court has shown political partisanship in favour of the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). On the other hand, fears have been raised that the recount will give a boost to the far-right and favour them in the parliamentary elections planned for Sunday, because they could present themselves as "victims of the system."

"The Constitutional Court is putting national security at risk," said presidential candidate Elena Lasconi. Her liberal-conservative party USR has challenged the Constitutional Court's order for a recount at the Court of Appeal.

Lasconi just scraped into second place in the first round of voting with 19.17%, behind the far-right and pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu, who surprisingly came in first with 22.94%.

In Romania, representatives of all parliamentary parties regularly observe the voting process at every polling station and watch the counting of the ballots. They confirm the accuracy of the count with their signatures. Everything is recorded on camera. This is not the case with the recount.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu from the PSD came in third in the first round with 19.14% - only 2,740 votes behind Lasconi. This meant that he failed to make it into the runoff.

Ciolacu initially stated on Facebook that he would withdraw his candidacy, but later said he was not interested in a second place that was assigned to him in a non-transparent manner.

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