In a declaration presented by Parliament Chair Nataliya Kiselova Wednesday, the legislature called on the Constitutional Court, the Central Election Commission (CEC), and election service provider Information Services to make public all documents related to the dispute over the election results. The declaration states that "someone is deliberately neglecting their duties".
A total of 128 deputies in the 240-seat Parliament voted "for" the text, 53 voted "against," and 11 deputies abstained.
The declaration was backed by GERB-UDF, MRF - New Beginning, BSP - United Left, There Is Such a People and one MP of Vazrazhdane. Those who voted against it included Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms. The abstentions came from MECh.
"We are on the brink of massive institutional instability, which calls into question the foundations of statehood. The situation is unprecedented and extremely dangerous," the declaration reads. It was proposed after a hearing of the CEC and Information Service in Parliament on Tuesday.
In the document, the Members of Parliament express their deep concern about the progress of the constitutional case challenging the legality of the elections for the 51st National Assembly. They call on the members of the Constitutional Court (CC) to make public all documents related to the ongoing procedure and, at the same time, to carry out additional factual and legal actions to gather the necessary evidence to establish the true will of the Bulgarian citizens expressed during the elections for the 51st National Assembly. Following a proposal by Petar Petrov from Vazrazhdane, a call was included for the CEC and Information Services to ensure transparency of their actions in the procedure and provide access for all interested parties to attend the procedure for recalculating the votes.
After the October 27, 2024 elections, the CC was approached by several parties challenging the lawfulness of the voting. As part of the case it opened, the Court hired experts to do a new count of the ballots in some 2,204 polling stations and once the recount was done, it instructed the Central Election Commission to recalculate the results. CEC, in turn, asked Information Services to do the recalculation. On March 10, Information Services said that all relevant paperwork had been provided to the prosecuting magistracy. In an unprecedented statement, the Constitutional Court said that providing the election papers to the prosecutors without its permission hindered its efforts to conclude the case challenging the election results - promoting the Tuesday parliamentary hearing.
The parliamentary declaration further points out that it transpired during the Tuesday hearing that not all the ballots from the voting sections where the Constitutional Court ordered a vote recount, had reached the experts and the experts were handed bags which did not contain ballots from the machine voting.
"In some of the voting sections, the experts noted in their conclusions that no votes were cast, which is not true as evident from the CCTV camera footage and the protocols from the October elections. In this way, the votes of at least 780 Bulgarian citizens were not counted and were declared invalid. Someone is deliberately neglecting their duties, and this is obvious. The biggest failure in the work of the Constitutional Court is that it has classified its work, and transparency is lacking. By now, it should have decided whether the elections are entirely or partially annulled," the document further states.
According to the MPs, these and several other contradictions in the recount procedure risk deepening the distrust in the electoral process, and from there, the mistrust in democracy itself.
"We believe that inter-institutional dialogue should be restored as soon as possible, and with joint efforts, we can overcome the challenges facing the democratic process in Bulgaria, the document concludes."
