Occam's razor here.. Polling failure and it's very clear from the actual amount of people voting for the guy. Yes you can make a conspiracy theory but it's a bit ridiculous.
Most Romanians that work in IT(and post here) live in their own bubble (because they make 5-10x average Romanian salary) and are totally disconnected from the common folks and can't now believe that the person making less than minimum wage that is serving their 3 euros expresso is not loving it.
Those common folks are similar to the rest of Eastern Europe with strict religious beliefs and very conservative so it's not a surprise they vote for someone that they resonate with.
Similar stuff happened in Brussels where a radical islamist party won seats in the parliament by using TikTok tactics. He did not show up in the polls either.
But it doesn’t address the actual question, or point.
And I’m not your opponent.
If it’s important to earn the personal point to you, I’m happy to leave it here.
If it doesn’t show up in the polls, either it’s an impressive polling failure - which is a high bar that has to be passed.
Or it’s something else.
Manipulation also poses a very high bar that must be passed.