Week 5: More Election Briefs, Breaks, and Baltic Air
This week I’m back to drafting election briefs, turning my attention to Romania’s presidential election held earlier this year. On 4 May 2025 Romanians went to the polls, with a run-off on 18 May after no candidate secured an outright majority. Centrist candidate Nicușor Dan ultimately won with about 54 percent of the vote, defeating nationalist rival George Simion. Turnout was strong by recent standards — just under 60 percent — and the process earned generally positive marks from domestic and international observers for procedural integrity. Even so, the campaign was anything but calm: allegations of Russian interference, sharp online disinformation, and a highly polarized media environment dominated headlines. EU leaders welcomed the result as a stabilizing moment, but the underlying divides remain a reminder that clean mechanics alone cannot guarantee public trust.
For this election, I’m focusing on many of the accusations of disinformation, interference, and accusations of corruption. Sometimes this just involves documenting these instances and contextualizing them within the broader trend of antidemocratic movements we’ve been seeing around the world, and tracking where they go through the country’s judicial system. Election cases move surprisingly fast through court documents, given the time-sensitive nature of the issue, so I’ve been busy following all of the legal challenges in Bucharest!
Non-work life in Stockholm continues at a steady pace. I’ve been exploring more of the city’s fourteen main islands — often grabbing a sandwich at lunch and walking to the nearest dock to watch the gulls circle overhead. The capital sits at the edge of an archipelago with roughly 30,000 islands, skerries, and islets, so water is never far away. Usually I’ll see a flotilla of tourist ferries, fishing boats, and kayaks out on the water around lunchtime, so I’m never short on entertainment.
Hitting the midway point of this internship has me thinking about what comes next. My path has been more public-interest-oriented than the traditional law-firm summer associate route, first at IFES and now at International IDEA. These organizations don’t file election lawsuits. They build capacity, connect actors, and illuminate best practices to strengthen the foundations others will defend in court or in policy. Wherever I land after graduation, the goal is to carry forward the comparative insights and practical lessons I’ve picked up here, and to do so in my (hopeful) capacity as a lawyer. For now, though, there are still briefs to write, islands to wander, and a few more Swedish summer weeks to enjoy, so more immediate concerns are calling.
Until next week,
Hank