site.btaUPDATED Central Election Commission First Heard from Constitutional Court Mar. 7 about "Lost Ballots"

The Central Election Commission (CEC) first heard from a March 7 letter by the Constitutional Court about "lost ballots" as a result of a vote recount in some voting sections, CEC Deputy Chair Rositsa Mateva said during a parliamentary hearing Tuesday. During the hearing, the MPs will question the leadership of the Central Election Commission and election service provider Information Services, as it is trying to see who did what regarding a constitutional case on the lawfulness of the October 2024 elections.

The Constitutional Court 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. 

Mateva explained that the "lost ballots" issue concerns sections where clearly people has voted and where 780 votes were scrapped in the recount. CEC suggested to the Constitutional Court to instruct the mayors to do a new check of the premises where voting took place but the idea was rejected. "Whether the Constitutional Court took the matter about the lost election documents and materials to the Constitutional Court, we have no idea," said Mateva.

BSP - United Left asked where the ballots were "lost": at the Constitutional Court or the municipal administration.

Mateva said that CEC only made logistical arrangements and a schedule for the mayors and the regional governors to bring the bags with the election materials to the Constitutional Court.

Information Services CEO Ivaylo Filipov told the MPs earlier in the hearing that the total number of votes that disappeared for all political parties, is 780 in seven "problem sections", including 739 for the parliamentary parties and Velichie, which was 21 votes short of making it into Parliament. 

He went on to offer a breakdown of the "disappeared votes" by party. Of those, MRF - New Beginning has 242, GERB-UDF 134, Vazrazhdane 103, Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria 92, BSP - United Left 55, There Is Such a People 35, MECh 33,  Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (later transformed into Democracy, Rights and Freedoms) 13 and Velichie 32.

Asked by GERB-UDF if these 780 votes will impact the 4-percent barrier for entry in Parliament, CEC Chair Kamelia Neykova explained that the valid votes for the said seven sections - three in Stara Zagora, two in Blagoevgrad, one in Kardjali, one in Sofia's 23rd constituency - have been reduced by 780.

In the words of CEC Deputy Chair Emil Voynov, these 790 "lost votes" will barely have an impact. "If 780 votes are removed from the total base on which the 4% is calculated and the 32 lost votes for Velichie are removed, there will be no consequence for Velichie in particular. The barrier will go down in term of votes but Velichie will have 32 votes less and its result in percentage perms will be the same," he said.