PresidentialElection2025/Constitutional Court releases reasoning for its upholding BEC decision to bar Georgescu from running

 The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) released on Friday the reasoning for its upholding the decision of the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) to bar Calin Georgescu from running for president this May.In essence, the CCR argues that the "initiation, organization and conduct" of the electoral process in May stems from the December 6, 2024 ruling and it would be "inadmissible" to now consider that Georgescu meets the requirements to accede to the position of president.The CCR explains that Georgescu's candidacy must be assessed in the light of the Court's decision of December 6, 2024, which annulled the election after multiple irregularities and violations of the electoral legislation were found, "which distorted the citizens' free and fair vote and the equality of opportunity of electoral competitors, affected the transparent and fair nature of the campaign and disregarded the legal regulations on the campaign's financing."In the aforementioned ruling, the Court referred to the violations of the principles of democracy, the rule of law and sovereignty, as well as the right to vote and to be elected, and determined that the state has a positive responsibility to prevent any unjustified interference with the electoral process by referring to the constitutional principles, the CCR states.On March 9 the BEC rejected Georgescu's candidacy, maintaining that the elements included in the oath of allegiance taken by the person elected as president, specifically respect for the Constitution and the defense of democracy, are requirements the candidate must meet from the moment of the candidacy's submission."It is considered that both the Constitution and the Constitutional Court have configured the axiological framework wherein the 2025 election for the position of President of Romania takes place. In this sense, the formal requirements of the candidacy, as well as the special substantive ones, including the candidate's declaration that he meets the legal requirements to run must be analyzed both in terms of their conformity with the constitutional framework and in terms of their subsidiarity in relation to the candidate's positioning, that is of his attitude that is or not likely to affect the constitutional framework," explains the CCR.Based on these premises, the BEC shows that it cannot give precedence to the analysis of the formal aspects of Georgescu's candidacy over the fundamental ones already settled by the Constitutional Court, because otherwise "the risk exists that after completing the entire electoral process, the Constitutional Court would be in the situation of invalidating the result of the vote for the manifest lack, pre-existing the submission of the candidacy, of a condition for its registration, which is actually referred to by the Constitutional Court's ruling of October 5, 2024," specifies the CCR.In the opinion of the BEC, upheld by the CCR, "Calin Georgescu's candidacy does not meet the requirements for legality, since the candidate's failure to comply with electoral procedures violates the very obligation to defend democracy, which is based precisely on a fair, complete and impartial suffrage, in accordance with the law, in the absence of which the very foundation of the current constitutional order is altered."Considering the above, the Court finds that the BEC Decision No. 18D of March 9, 2025 to reject the registration of the independent candidacy of Mr. Calin Georgescu in Romania's 2025 election for president is in accordance with the constitutional and legal framework, and therefore the appeals shall be turned down, the reasoning states.