Electoral incidents reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs: disinformation on TikTok and attempts to fraud the vote

The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported yesterday, throughout the entire voting day, a series of electoral incidents in the context of the second round of the presidential elections, most of which were promptly handled by specialized structures. Before the vote, the police registered 76 reports regarding possible electoral incidents, most of which aimed at continuing electoral propaganda after the end of the campaign. Of these, 30 were not within the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and were redirected to the electoral bureaus and the Permanent Electoral Authority. Nine of the reports were not confirmed, and six are under investigation, while four people are already under criminal investigation.

Among the cases investigated is an incident that occurred in a locality in Ilfov County, where a member of the electoral bureau complained that he was threatened by the deputy chairman of the polling station. Another serious case was reported in Brăila County, where a man was caught offering alcoholic beverages to citizens to induce them to vote for a certain candidate. The police have filed a criminal case in this case for corrupting voters.

Yesterday, after the opening of the polling stations, the number of incidents decreased further, with seven reports being registered during the morning, two of which concerned criminal acts committed by the same person. Two other reports were under verification at the time of the closing of the edition, and two were sent to the competent institutions for resolution. However, by 8 p.m., 244 reports of possible electoral incidents had been registered, of which 163 were confirmed, 11 under investigation and 70 unconfirmed.

Among the cases investigated by the MIA structures, an attempt at illegal voting in Câmpia Turzii stands out, where a woman tried to vote using another person's identity document. She is being investigated for identity fraud and attempted voter fraud.

In Piteşti, a citizen reported the presence of his deceased parents on the electoral lists, but the checks refuted this accusation. Another incident took place in Constanţa, where the president of a polling station caught a person taking a photo of his ballot, thus violating electoral legislation, which is a misdemeanor and punishable by a fine.

A tense situation also occurred in Mogoşoaia, Ilfov County, around 8 a.m., where George Simion and Călin Georgescu tried to give statements to media representatives inside the polling station. Since they were blocking access to the polling station after exercising their right to vote, the president of the electoral bureau repeatedly requested police intervention to remove the two and the media representatives from the precinct and to allow access to other voters. Inside the polling station, a notice was posted stating that media representatives could not conduct interviews in the polling station, and failure to comply with this rule would result in immediate removal.

In Ilfov County, investigations were conducted after the president of a polling station noticed discrepancies between the number of voters who voted and the number of signatures on the electoral roll. In Mehedinţi County, the police in Drobeta Turnu Severin were notified by 112, by a man, regarding the fact that a person was transporting voters to a polling station. Also in the same county, a woman complained that, while inside the polling station, she had been physically assaulted by one of the members of the voting commission. Following the checks, it was established that the man had pushed her, the reason for the conflict being that he had forbidden her to film with his phone and invited her to leave the polling station. The police have filed a criminal case for the crime of assault or other violence.

The Prahova police were notified by a man that a minibus registered in Vrancea County was traveling in the municipality of Câmpina, with suspicions that it was transporting people for electoral purposes. Following the checks carried out, it was established that the vehicle in question was transporting 44 high school students accompanied by teachers, who were on a trip. The police in Vâlcea were also notified by a political party that a school minibus was being used to transport voters to the polling station. From the checks, the issues reported were not confirmed by law enforcement officers.

In Teleorman County, two men from the same locality are being investigated for the crime of multiple voting after allegedly voting twice. In the municipality of Oradea, investigations are underway for obstructing the free exercise of the right to vote after a voter reported that he was not allowed to vote at a polling station , later exercising her right to vote at another station. A woman from the municipality of Brăila is being investigated for voter fraud after voting, but following the checks it was found that she had lost her Romanian citizenship and therefore the right to vote.

In the municipality of Iaşi, a woman was detected who tried to vote at a polling station, although it appeared that she had voted via a mobile ballot box.

In addition to the above incidents, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has also identified threats in the online environment. The TikTok account @memefacator (preafericitul) was reported for distributing videos made with the help of artificial intelligence (deepfake), intended to discredit a presidential candidate. Also, the account @recnostinta published a clip that fraudulently imitated the identity of the news sites Hotnews and Antena 3 CNN, presenting fabricated information about alleged arrests of political leaders. The materials were reported for disinformation and for the potential to affect public order and trust in the electoral process.

Last but not least, the Ministry of Internal Affairs identified over 160 TikTok accounts that illegally used symbols and names associated with the Romanian Police or other structures of the ministry, misleading the public regarding the official status of these accounts. The ministry launched a public call to verify the source of any content on social media and to report suspicious accounts, in order to combat disinformation and protect the fairness of the electoral process.

The Alliance for the Unity of Romanians issued a press release yesterday stating that electoral tourism is taking place in the Republic of Moldova with school minibuses. A press release issued by Dan Perciu, the Minister of Education in Chisinau, states: "Certain politicians and their affiliated pages, without any embarrassment, began to distribute photos of school buses used as part of the national campaign "Learn in Moldova", insinuating that they were used for electoral transport. The reality is different. Yesterday (ed. - Saturday), several hundred students from across the country came to Chisinau to visit universities, including the Technical University of Moldova, as part of an activity organized by the Ministry of Education and Research to promote university studies in the Republic of Moldova. This manipulation is not only unscrupulous, but it offends the sincere effort of those who want to offer young people real opportunities to learn and build a future at home. Do not let disinformation, imposture, lies and cowardice speak on behalf of Romanians. It is time to choose decency, competence and respect for people".

Also yesterday, Victoria Furtună, former anti-corruption prosecutor in the Republic of Moldova, leader of the Moldova Mare party, requested the investigation of President Maia Sandu for the crime of "attempted external political subordination of a sovereign state", which she accuses of "open" involvement in the presidential elections in Romania.