site.btaDragomir Stoynev: "Constitutional Court, Central Election Commission, Information Services and Prosecutors Created a Tangled Knot"

The Constitutional Court, the Central Election Commission, election service provider Information Services and the prosecution service "created a tangled knot instead of working together, with no regard for the impact on ordinary people", Parliament Deputy Chair and BSP - United Left Floor Leader Dragomir Stoynev said during a parliamentary hearing Tuesday. 

The Constitutional Court (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 March 10, 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. 
 
Stoynev was among the MPs who moved for the hearing. 

He said that the Monday statement by the President of the Constitutional Court raised many important questions.

Here are some of them, as he sees it: why the CC has delayed its decision for nearly two months; what was the expertise of the people who were hired by the CC to do a recount of the ballots; why the head of Information Services tipped off the prosecution service, among others.

"The situation is unprecedented and extremely dangerous. And if anyone thinks that the main issue in this case is that mandates will be redrawn and that another political force may enter the National Assembly, they are mistaken. I’m talking about the danger of massive institutional instability, which directly calls into question the foundations of statehood," he added.

Stoynev commented that after referring the issue to the CC due to doubts about the electoral process, they did not receive clarity but rather another scandal. "This time it stemmed from the Constitutional Court itself. It is unprecedented for the CC and the Central Election Commission to communicate through the news media. It is also unprecedented for the President of the CC to speak publicly about a pending case. It is also unprecedented for us to search for flash drives and election documents, which it turns out are procedurally available but are missing," said Stoynev.