site.btaElection Commission Asks Two Coalitions to Certify that MRF Is Not Part of Them

The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday gave two coalitions, Movement for Rights and Freedoms - New Beginning, and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms – MRF, until 5 p.m. on September 7 to present documents certifying that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) Party is not part of them.

If the MRF Party participates in both of these coalitions, it would run counter to the Election Code, which says that a party may only participate in one coalition in a given political election.

The CEC decision was supported by 11 votes in favour and opposed by 3 votes against. Krasimir Tsipov, who voted against, commented: "We have failed to issue a clear, specific instruction to be fulfilled by the parties that are supposed to present these certificates."

Another CEC member, Georgi Bahanov, explained his vote against the decision by saying that the instructions issued by the CEC to the two coalitions were "a continuation of the legal absurdity" which emerged as soon as the election registration documents of these coalitions were received at the CEC, because the commission did not record the order in which they were received. Bahanov argued that if the CEC had given the two coalitions serial numbers at the time they applied for registration, any duplication of a member party in these coalitions could have been addressed simply by refusing to register the second coalition in the order of application.

Yordanka Gancheva, the third CEC member who was opposed to the decision, said the commission should pronounce itself separately on every single application. "We are not in a position to delay the procedure, the legal deadline for the registrations is September 11," she commented.