Romania’s constitutional court has annulled the country’s 2024 presidential election process in a historic decision, meaning the first round which saw far-right ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu emerge as a narrow leader will now not count.

Romanians had been due to go to the polls again on Sunday in a second-round run-off vote to decide their next president. The choice was between independent far-right candidate Călin Georgescu and the pro-Western centrist Elena Lasconi. The two candidates were running neck and neck in the polls.

Forty-eight hours before Romanians were due to vote in a presidential election run-off, the whole process was scrapped because of an unprecedented ruling by the constitutional court. The court's decision to annul the first round came after a far-right independent candidate,

Romania, a European Union and NATO member, was thrown into turmoil by a shock result in the first round of the presidential vote on Nov. 24. A little-known far-right candidate surged to victory, raising suspicions of outside meddling in the electoral process of a country that has been a staunch ally of Ukraine.

The move comes after the far-right winner surged to victory despite polling in single digits before the first election round.

Romania's top court on Friday postponed a decision on whether to annul the first round of a presidential election until Dec. 2, after a shock result caused suspicions of interference in the campaign.

Romanian authorities raced to piece together how a little-known pro-Russian candidate won the first round of a presidential election that’s now been annulled as they carried out a crackdown of surging extremist forces.

Romania's top court annulled an ongoing presidential election after accusations of Russian meddling and ruled on Friday the entire process, which had been due to conclude this weekend, would have to be re-run.