The first round will be held on May 4, and if a candidate's winning rate in the first round does not exceed 50%, the second round will be held on May 18.

Romania's coalition government has announced that it will hold new presidential elections in May, after December's vote was shockingly annulled over accusations of Russian interference.

A cabinet meeting on Thursday approved the ruling party's proposal to hold fresh presidential elections.

The first round of elections will be held on May 4, and if the candidate in the first round does not win more than 50% of the vote, the second round will be held on May 18.

Last year, the EU and NATO country that borders Ukraine descended into institutional chaos after little-known far-right pro-Russian politician Calin Georgescu won the first round of presidential elections on November 24.

Romanian officials say Georgescu benefited from a massive social media campaign led by TikTok that gave him preferential treatment, a charge the platform denies.

Romania's Supreme Court canceled the vote and ordered the government to conduct a new vote in its entirety due to suspicions of Russian interference, which Moscow denies.

The European Commission also launched formal proceedings against TikTok last month over the company's alleged failure to limit electoral interference, particularly in the Romanian vote.

Georgescu denounced the annulment vote as "an official coup".

Tens of thousands of Romanians took to the streets of Bucharest on Sunday in the second protest in the past week against the cancellation of the initial vote. The far-right Alliance of Romania (AUR) party launched the protest.

They are calling for the resignation of President Klaus Iohannis, a liberal who remains in office until a successor is chosen.

On Thursday, the government led by current Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu issued a decree saying campaign materials ahead of the next presidential vote need to be clearly marked as electoral content and identify their sponsors.

Social media platforms must also remove content that does not comply with the rules within five hours of a request from Romania's election officials, or face fines of 1% to 5% of turnover.

However, Romanian human rights groups criticized the government for not consulting the public before issuing the decree and warned that the new rules did not address real campaign finance issues.