Residents of Major Cities Protest for Rule of Law, Fair Elections

UPDATED Residents of Major Cities Protest for Rule of Law, Fair Elections

Dimitrina Solakova, Aleksandra Krumova, Ivan Lazarov

Protest rally in defence of rule of law, Sofia, March 12, 2025 (BTA Photo/Milena Stoykova)

Sofia,

12.03.2025 19:04 | UPDATED 12.03.2025 21:26

(BTA)

Citizens held a protests in Sofia and the cities of Burgas, Pleven and Plovdiv on Wednesday, expressing support for rule of law and free and fair elections in the wake of the recent legal limbo concerning the legality of the last general elections.

Mottoed "WHO Blocked the Constitution", the protest in Sofia was organized by the Justice for All initiative through social media. There was heavy police presence in the area.

Georgi Kurtev, a participant in the protest, said: "It is time every institution knew its place, and separate institutions worked together. When a country's institutions do not work in synchronicity, neither the economy nor the living standard will go up."

Sonya Glushkova said that the prosecution service cannot interfere in the Constitutional Court's activity. What happened was unprecedented, she added, commenting on this week's events.

The Constitutional Court has been approached by several parties challenging the lawfulness of the October 2025 parliamentary elections. As part of the case it opened in November 2024, the Court hired experts to do a new count of the ballots in some 2,204 polling stations and once the recount was done, on February 26 the Court instructed the Central Election Commission (CEC) to recalculate the results. On March 4, the CEC asked election services operator Information Services to do the recalculation by March 10. However, on March 10 Information Services said it sent the data to the prosecution service in relation to a check in connection with information that ballots are missing from the elections. The news triggered the first-ever address to the nation by the Constitutional Court, whose President said the data were given to the prosecution service without the Court's permission, hindering the Court’s efforts to conclude the case challenging the election results.

The protesters gathered for a demonstration and then set off on a peaceful march, which started from the Palace of Justice and reached the historic building of the National Assembly. Traffic was temporarily disrupted. The march proceeded without incident.

The police detained a young man who set off fireworks from the Monument to the Tsar Liberator after the protest in front of Parliament's old building. No injuries were reported by the authorities.

/IV/