site.btaUPDATED President Says It's "Inadmissible for State Bodies to Impede Work of Constitutional Court"

President Rumen Radev commented Tuesday that it is "inadmissible for state bodies to impede the work of the Constitutional Court" and prevent it from pronouncing on the lawfulness of the October 2024 elections. Radev was speaking to reporters during a visit to the Novo Selo training area together with Montenegro President Jakov Milatovic.

The CC has been approached by several parties challenging the lawfulness of the elections. 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 election services operator 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 Court said that providing the election papers to the prosecuting magistracy without its permission hinders its efforts to conclude the case challenging the election results. 

"I insist that all responsible institutions make an utmost effort for an immediate resolution of this case," said the President. This should be done the soonest possible, he added.

He argued that what is at stake is not the lawfulness of the elections but the functioning of democracy. 

"It is extremely important in this situation to find the right solution, and that is for the Constitutional Court to fulfill its task," said the President.

Asked who benefits from this situation, he said, "The stakes are whether the behind-the-scenes forces will consume the entire state or if we will find the strength to reject them. Clearly, the behind-the-scenes forces have an interest, clearly those who, with their boldness, tell us every day what to do, while dragging us from scandal to scandal, from crisis to crisis, have an interest in such a development."

Rumen Radev also pointed out that there is "growing concern that a boundary is being crossed, beyond which democracy can no longer be sustained". He argued that "we must not allow any more elections like the recent ones, which took place under the shadow of vote buying and corporate votes, with numerous violations and manipulations, leading to unprecedented calls for the annulment of the vote".

The President also stated that if the competent institutions fail and are unable to resolve this situation, it may lead to the convening of the Consultative Council on National Security.