site.btaUPDATED CC-DB to Petition Constitutional Court for Comprehensive Check of Election Results

The Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition has decided to turn to the Constitutional Court for a comprehensive check of the October 27 election results in every single polling station. Based on this check, it should be decided whether there is need for new Members of Parliament, CC-DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov told a news conference here on Monday.

CC-DB co-leader Assen Vassilev said that the coalition will back all other petitions to the Constitutional Court to prevent refusal of justice. The Constitutional Court has to consider all petitions on this "quite controversial electoral process," he said.

"Our analysis showed a number of violations," Bozhidar Bozhanov of Democratic Bulgaria said, referring to the high percentage of invalid ballots, as in nearly 5,000 polling stations there are more than 5% of invalid ballots. In dozens of polling stations there was a turnout of over 80%. Most of these votes are for one particular party, Bozhanov added. He said there was a discrepancy with the voting machines, i.e. the commissions counted fewer votes than the machines reported. There were irregularities in the video surveillance, some of which constitute crimes, Bozhanov added. He pointed out that last-minute changes of sectional commissions, despite the Central Election Commission's ban, led to potential fully controlled polling stations.
Bozhanov explained that a petition would be made for a recount of the election results.

Vassilev explained that over 2.5 million people voted in these elections and what can be fixed is "for all of those 2.5 million people to be sure that their vote is counted correctly, so that the Bulgarian citizens can be sure that their vote is counted correctly. We will support all petitions to the Constitutional Court so that there is no denial of justice," he added.

"We believe that MRF-New Beginning has entered Parliament with illegitimate votes, so our proposal to GERB and to all parties [in Parliament] was clearly formulated. Since we say that this party has entered illegitimately, we want it to be isolated in terms of making important decisions for the State," Nikolay Denkov of Continue the Change explained, referring to the coalition's declaration sent to the parliamentary formations. "The question, which was also posed to GERB as one of the [parliamentary] parties, was whether they would isolate this irregular vote or not. The answer we heard today was negative: GERB will work with MRF-New Beginning", Denkov added.

CC-DB co-leader Kiril Petkov insisted that GERB must make a decision on whether it can break away from Peevski or not. "If it can, it should support the [CC-DB] declaration, if it cannot, it should say so. With this declaration we do not want to bend [GERB leader] Boyko Borissov; we want to straighten him out. The decision he and his party have to take is Bulgaria or Peevski. Only after this decision can we talk about the election of the Chairman of the National Assembly," Petkov underscored.

"We want to hear a clear answer from them about our declaration. This declaration is not just words, there are several acts in it that need to happen - the anti-corruption commission, the three bills under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the suspension of the appointment of a prosecutor general by a Supreme Judicial Council with an expired term in office. If the colleagues are serious not only in words, they should break their relations with Peevski," Petkov insisted.

"We do not have a clear answer, we have a half-answer," Petkov commented on Borissov's words that neither of the two MRF factions is good. Petkov asked, since Borissov has said he will not work with any of them, what prevents him from signing the declaration the CC-DB are proposing. "Realistically, we haven't heard firmly whether he is absolutely giving up on Peevski or not," Petkov added, clarifying that before they get that answer from GERB leader Borissov, everything else is theater.

"We propose to have a majority in which Peevski does not participate," Bozhanov specified.

In politics support is sought, Atanassov said and pointed out that for more than a week, the first political force - GERB-UDF - has not sought support for anything. "If we want to calm the situation, measured actions should be taken, not attacks," Atanassov added.