site.btaMedia Review: October 31

ELECTION FALLOUT

"The CCTV data is scandalous, especially in some sections," Tsvetelina Peneva, member of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Public Council, told BNT. The media have been circulating video surveillance footage from the October 27 snap elections showing a voting section member instructing another to stand in front of the camera so as to hide her from view while she marks several ballots with her own pen.

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CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva told bTV that the commission does not review the video recordings and cannot, on the basis of a video recording, resolve discrepancies. "We don't correct tally sheets, we don't add to them, we only remove discrepancies," Mateva said.

“We guarantee that every vote of the Bulgarian voter as recorded in the tally sheets is accounted for,” Mateva added, specifying that there can be no re-count if there is no change in the Election Code.

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Nova TV reports that there have been hundreds of problems with CCTV at polling stations when counting ballots following the October 27 snap elections. Despite the devices provided across the country, many were not broadcasting live. In another part of the polling stations, the recordings, which should have contained the entire process of counting the ballot papers and the preparation of the tally sheets, were interrupted unreasonably early.

"Video surveillance was the legislature's attempt to dispel citizens' doubts whether the votes were being counted correctly. That, unfortunately, is not happening. The analysis that we have done shows that in many of the polling stations either the CCTV was not turned on, or we could not see the counting process itself," said Blagovest Kirilov of the Bulgarian Democratic Centre.

"Experience shows that video surveillance does not create more trust. What it does is to take out such cases as the one with the filling in of ballots, and present it as universal," said election expert Daniel Stefanov.

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Every day since the start of the election campaign, the executive has flooded the public with bombastic figures about actions against vote buying, Dnevnik writes. The caretaker Prime Minister and Interior Minister have consistently reported hundreds of operations being carried out. The latest number of raids from the Interior Ministry is 227. Unfortunately, a closer reading shows that it was mainly for appearances.

Against the 227 operations reported, the number of those detained is 73. It is not even clear how many of them were arrested for vote buying because we saw that during these operations, handcuffs often snapped for other offences. For reference, in April 2023, when undoubtedly the figures for vote-buying were much smaller, there were 113 arrests on alerts of electoral offences. Pre-trial proceedings were 129, with fewer tipoffs.

The fact that the operations were much ado about nothing is clearly shown by a close examination of the so-called “risk” polling stations at random. In the Roma neighbourhoods the turnout was not very high, and the votes were mainly for two parties - GERB and MRF - New Beginning. Ahmed Dogan's formation - Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) - also appears in a few places. At the same time, entire political forces with otherwise good results at the national level are simply absent from the electoral picture in these risk places.

The election results give us a reason to talk about the so-called controlled vote - where voters are influenced. This can happen by representatives of large employers as well as local authorities, especially in localities where the municipality is the largest employer.

Trust in the electoral process is trust in power, situated on the basis of fair elections. It should be in everyone's interest to strengthen trust in the electoral process, but in the last elections this did not happen. On the contrary, more water was poured into the mill of distrust, which is already critically high. If this trend in the conduct of elections continues, we will end up with a complete delegitimization of the elected, and the consequences of this are clear to all. 

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The announcement of the official results of the elections, instead of bringing reassurance to the public, causes tension and raises questions about the fairness of the vote, President Rumen Radev’s press centre said in a statement, adding:

- How is it possible that the multiplying alerts and examples of vote buying and manipulation are visible to all, but remain outside the attention of the responsible institutions?

- Are State bodies being used to pressure mayors and businesses to vote a certain way? Has the criminal contingent been harnessed to get votes?

- Which political force and which political leader are using such ugly practices?

President Radev expects convincing answers from the caretaker government and, in particular, from the Interior Ministry and the security services.

GOVERNMENT FORMATION TALKS

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) will not negotiate the formation of a government with GERB-UDF if leader Boyko Borissov does not state a firm position on the subject of MRF-New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski, said CC-DB’s Yavor Bozhankov in the studio of BNT.

Regarding the elections, he said that “the scariest thing is not the scratched, smeared, forged tally sheets, not even the even vote buying, but that Bulgarian society is starting to accept this as normal".

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Trud predicts that thirteen MPs of Democratic Bulgaria will leave the parliamentary group of the coalition with Continue the Change.

According to the daily’s analysts, GERB leader Boyko Borissov will propose a minority cabinet as a final step. 

The formation of a regular government is likely to be postponed until spring because of CC-DB's adamant unwillingness to hold constructive negotiations, observers of the country's political processes have found.

Trud’s analysts believe that another round of snap elections is more likely than the formation of a regular cabinet. Pure arithmetic at this stage shows at least three possible options for a majority in the 240-seat Parliament:

- GERB-UDF + CC-DB + There Is Such a People (TISP) can have 124 seats;

- GERB-UDF + CC-DB + BSP-United Left can have 128 MPs;

- GERB-UDF + CC-DB + TISP + BSP can have 148 MPs.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF-New Beginning) is not included in the calculations because of CC-DB’s condition to set up a sanitary cordon around Delyan Peevski and his formation. CC-DB co-chairman Kiril Petkov Wednesday set other conditions for sitting at the negotiating table: that Boyko Borissov should not be prime minister, and that Borislav Sarafov should not be re-elected as prosecutor general. Petkov threatened that they would not negotiate if a declaration on a sanitary cordon around Peevski is not signed. The coalition demanded a response from GERB. "There is no new situation for us to comment on," the party headquarters said, adding that the only new circumstance was that CC-DB have finally admitted that they cannot propose an equidistant prime minister.

MISCELLANEOUS

Dnevnik writes that Thursday is the second possible date for nominations for a new president of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC). Nominations can be made in four consecutive sessions of the Supreme Judicial Council, and the election of a new president of the court is scheduled for March 20.

Candidates can be nominated by at least three members of the SJC's College of Judges, the Minister of Justice and the Plenum of the Supreme Administrative Court. To have a candidate elected, 17 votes are needed. The procedure was opened on October 8, and Georgi Cholakov's mandate expires on November 22.

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Grigor Dimitrov will play against French wild card Arthur Rinderknech in the semifinals of the Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Paris, Trud writes. The match between the Bulgarian and the Frenchman is the last on the programme on the central court and will start after 9:30 pm Bulgarian time.  The two athletes have met twice, and Dimitrov has won both matches. In last year's edition of the Masters in Paris, he lost in the final to Novak Djokovic.

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An attempt to smuggle 243 tarantulas and 100 leopard geckos was prevented by the customs officers at Kapitan Andreevo, Thursday’s media report.

On Wednesday, a truck with Turkish registration arrived at the checkpoint, travelling unladen on its way from Bulgaria to Turkiye.

The driver, a Turkish citizen, had nothing to declare. The vehicle was selected for a thorough customs check using the 'risk analysis' method. In the course of the inspection, customs officers found a Styrofoam box filled with 100 leopard geckos - nocturnal lizards - in the driver's cabin under the bed. In another cardboard box, again under the bed, tubes were found with 243 tarantulas - a nocturnal species of spider - hidden in them.

The exotic animals were seized and immediately handed over to the terrarium in Mineralni Bani near Haskovo. Because of their small size, the exotic animals found are preferred as pets. The driver will be fined under the Customs Act.