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Romanian far-right populist Calin Georgescu has lost his appeal against a ruling barring him from participating in the country’s presidential election in May.

The Constitutional Court issued the final ruling on Tuesday after deliberating for two hours, according to the BBC.

Following the court’s verdict, a large crowd gathered outside the court in Bucharest, shouting “traitors” and “we are going nowhere”.

Romania had on Sunday barred Georgescu from running in May’s presidential election.

The Bucharest-based electoral bureau invalidated Georgescu’s candidacy after receiving more than 1,000 challenges, mostly related to his anti-democratic and extremist stances.

Georgescu had won the first round of last year’s presidential vote, but it was annulled after intelligence revealed that Russia had been involved in setting up almost 800 TikTok accounts backing him.