Romanians are returning to the polls this weekend, after the unprecedented cancellation of the presidential election in December last year that sparked protests and unrest nationwide.
Shocking victory The first-round victory of far-right candidate Calin Đorđescu was annulled amid allegations of Russian interference, suspicious TikTok accounts, and secret payments to online influencers.
Moscow denied interfering in these elections.
Đorđescu is now prohibited from running for office and is located in detention, under criminal investigation that includes an attempt to overthrow the constitutional order.
He denied the allegations and accused the authorities of "fabricating evidence to justify a stolen election."
The leader of the nationalist party AUR, Đorđe Simion, is the favorite in the polls for the first round of the repeat elections.
Simion is followed in the polls by Crin Antonescu of the National Liberal Party and independent candidate Nicusor Dan.
At the center of this unprecedented political crisis are TikTok influencers who have been accused by Romanian authorities of participating in social media campaigns that artificially boosted Đorđescu's online presence.
The BBC spoke to some of them.
What happened on TikTok?
The victory of pro-Russian independent candidate Calin Đorđescu in the first round of the election was a big surprise.
Gheorgheescu was relatively unknown in the months leading up to the election, with between three and five percent support, according to polls.
He announced zero budget for his election campaign, had no headquarters, and did not campaign in a traditional manner.
Instead, he focused on TikTok videos, including ones of him riding horses in Romanian folk costumes and practicing judo.
He went viral on TikTok in the weeks leading up to the election and soared to the top of the election results, ultimately winning almost 23 percent of the vote.
Independent think tank Expert Forum published a report saying that Đorđescu's explosive rise on TikTok was "sudden and artificial - in line with the way he exploded at the polls."
Authorities say that in the November elections, TikTok's algorithm was abused in three different ways: by more than a hundred paid influencers who posted paid content indirectly promoting Gheorghe, by thousands of fake accounts whose comments boosted Gheorghe's presence on the platform, and, finally, by the "King of TikTok," who allegedly paid thousands of dollars to boost his campaign.
Authorities said one of those campaigns was "identical" to an operation "led by the Russian Federation in Ukraine."
In a separate case, declassified intelligence documents also alleged that Russia carried out "cyberattacks, leaks and sabotage" in Romania.
But authorities have yet to provide any concrete evidence of Russian interference in the election, causing great discontent among many Romanians.
The foreign intelligence service and Romanian police declined to comment on the ongoing investigations.
Influencer campaign
Shortly before the election, a campaign using the hashtag "stability and integrity" flooded Romanian TikTok.
Influencers posted videos describing what they were looking for in a future president: "stability", "progress", "patriot".
They did not name any specific candidates.
They were paid to post videos with these messages through a marketing platform called FameApp, which allows brands to mass-engage influencers to promote their products.
But influencers say they don't know who paid for it.
FameApp declined to comment to the BBC.
Kristina, an influencer from the city of Iasi, says that when she accepted the job, she thought "there was nothing suspicious about it."
She says that "in the back of her mind" she thought that she was probably paid by one of the 14 candidates and she "just thought it was a smart approach. It's not spreading political propaganda. It's just encouraging people to get out and vote."
Some influencers did not mark their own posts as paid content.
This is against TikTok's rules, where paid political advertising is prohibited.
Although the ads did not mention Đorđescu's name, the influencers we spoke to described "waves of comments" mentioning him that appeared below the videos.
Romeo Rusu, a micro-influencer from Konstante with 25.000 followers, said:
"Right after I posted the video, within seconds I started getting dozens of comments. I ended up with 300 comments and they were all supporting the independent candidate Calin Đorđescu... I was absolutely surprised."
The comments came to the public eye after TikTok said in a report that it had removed a network of more than 27.000 fake accounts that "used fictional personas to post comments related to the Romanian elections."
It is not yet known who created these bot accounts.
Experts say that peppering unrelated videos with comments in favor of Đorđescu is a tactic to beat TikTok's algorithm and get his name to "trend," which in turn will push his content into more users' feeds.
A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC that during the presidential campaign, the company "blocked millions of fraudulent engagement attempts, removed hundreds of thousands of spam accounts, prevented impersonation of political candidates and dismantled three secret influencer networks with limited reach."
"We continue to work closely with local and EU authorities, and to enter into partnerships with local organizations to enhance reliable election information," they said.
Uncertainty surrounding the campaign continued into the new year, until a surprising turn of events in January.
Romanian tax authorities have revealed that the #stabilityandintegrity campaign was paid for by the center-right National Liberal Party (PNL), which had its own candidate in the election.
In response, the PNL told Romanian journalists from Snup that their campaign had been hijacked to support Đorđescu.
'King of TikTok'
Then in March, TikTok influencer Bogdan Peškir was arrested for "voter fraud via electronic means of communication."
The towel was known throughout Romania as the "King of TikTok," famous for rewarding TikTok influencers with gifts, online tokens worth real money.
The prosecution alleged that Peškir paid more than 250 influencers more than $900.000 through TikTok giveaways "to induce them to vote for a 'particular candidate' in the presidential election."
Peškir's lawyers reportedly said that "none of the donations made by Peškir through TikTok were for election purposes."
We spoke to Lucian Elgi, a musician and influencer who admitted that Peškir paid him thousands of dollars through TikTok gifts.
He says he believes he was paid to support his work as a musician.
Elgi denied that he promoted Đorđescu.
The BBC could not confirm this, because his TikTok videos – along with those of others who were paid from Peškir's TikTok account – have been removed.
Elgi says his content was not about the elections, but about manele, a pop-folk music genre with roots in the Roma community.
Several popular manele musicians were accused of receiving money from Peşkir to campaign for Đorđescu.
Elgi says this content was flooded with comments in favor of Đorđescu.
"It was crazy," he says.
"On every post there were comments like: Đorđescu for president, Đorđescu for president!"
Much remains unknown regarding the annulment of the election.
An investigation is underway at the European Commission and in Romania's highest courts.
While Romanians are concerned about alleged foreign influence, many are angry that there is still no publicly available evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt Russian interference in the election.
Uncovering an influence operation and its consequences is a painstaking and complex task.
Razvan Lucac, editor of the Romanian news portal Snup, fears that it will take a very long time to solve this case.
Additional reporting by Đorđijan Tudor and Oana Maroćico
- Final decision: Calin Đorđescu cannot participate in the repeat presidential elections in Romania
- Romanian presidential candidate Calin Đorđescu detained
- Constitutional Court annuls results of Romania's presidential election
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