Caption: A woman leaves the polling booth prior to vote for the presidential elections at a polling station in Bucharest on November 24, 2024. Photo: AFP/Daniel Mihailescu
ROMANIA’S top court on Friday annulled ongoing presidential elections over alleged irregularities, after far-right candidate Calin Georgescu topped the first round — a decision with precedents around the world in the past two decades.
Gabon: coup
An hour after the announcement of Ali Bongo Ondimba’s election to a third term as president on August 30, 2023, a military junta led by General Brice Oligui Nguema forced him out and denounced what they said was a rigged election.
The coup put an end to 55 years of rule by the Bongo family.
Oligui has promised to return power to civilians at the end of a transition process, with a presidential election scheduled for August 2025.
Malawi: violent clashes
On February 3, 2020, Malawi’s constitutional court annulled the re-election of Peter Mutharika as president the previous year.
The court determined the elections were marred by widespread irregularities.
For several months, supporters of opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera had taken to the streets to demand the election’s annulment, leading to clashes with the police.
Chakwera won fresh polls in June 2020.
Bolivia: hollow victory
On October 20, 2019, Bolivians went to the polls with Evo Morales, Latin America’s longest-serving leader, seeking a fourth straight term.
His only main challenger was centrist former president Carlos Mesa.
The release of official results was stalled, prompting international observers to ask for clarification.
On October 25, the election authority released final results, giving victory to Morales and sparking widespread unrest.
Just over two weeks later, Morales resigned and deputy senate speaker Jeanine Anez declared herself interim president.
She later signed a law annulling the October vote results and prevented Morales — exiled in Mexico — from running.
Kenya: botched vote
The 2017 presidential election in Kenya on August 8 pitted incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta against Raila Odinga, who had run unsuccessfully three times in the past.
As votes were being counted the opposition cried foul, alleging hacking and rigging were resulting in a false tally favouring Kenyatta.
Violence broke out after Kenyatta was declared the winner and the opposition asked the Supreme Court to annul the result.
On September 1, 2017 Kenya’s judiciary took the historic decision to annul the election results over the claims of widespread irregularities.
Odinga boycotted the October rerun, handing victory to Kenyatta.
Austria: marathon election
Green-backed Alexander Van der Bellen, who ran as an independent, was declared president on December 4, 2016 after the longest and most turbulent presidential campaign in post-war Austria.
On May 22, 2016 Van der Bellen won a runoff against Norbert Hofer, who had set his sights on becoming the first far-right president of an EU country.
But Hofer’s party got the result annulled by the Constitutional Court in July because of procedural irregularities.
A re-run had to be postponed because of faulty glue on postal votes.
Van der Bellen was finally elected in December.
Haiti: power vacuum
The election of Jovenel Moise on October 25, 2015, was annulled in court the following June amid charges of massive fraud, creating a power vacuum.
Moise prevailed again in a rescheduled first-round election on November 20, 2016, at which turnout was a dismal 21 percent.
Maldives: high tensions
The Maldives Supreme Court in October 2013 annulled the results of presidential elections over irregularities in the electoral roll.
The first round vote had been won by Mohamed Nasheed, who had been ousted 18 months earlier.
Nasheed went on to win the reorganised first round on November 9 but was beaten in the second round by Abdulla Yameen, the half-brother of a former president.
Ukraine: Orange Revolution
On November 21, 2004, pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych won the former Soviet republic’s presidential election but the result was annulled in December after claims of rigging triggered the “Orange Revolution”.
His bitter rival, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned by dioxin during the campaign but went on to win a new second round on December 26.
The presidency of the pro-western leader, marked by political turbulence and economic crisis, largely disappointed Ukrainians who in 2010 voted in Yanukovych again.
Serbia: low turnout
From October 2002 to November 2003, three presidential elections were ruled invalid in Serbia as the turnout was less than the 50 percent required under the electoral law.
In June 2004 reformist and pro-European Boris Tadic eventually won against ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. (AFP)
