Bulgaria’s July elections: CEC rejects complaint by Borissov’s GERB against caretaker government
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has dismissed a complaint by Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF electoral coalition that the caretaker government appointed by President Roumen Radev is campaigning against it ahead of the July 11 early parliamentary elections.
Borissov’s electoral coalition lodged the complaint on June 18 on the basis of the Stefan Yanev caretaker government’s self-assessment of its work since taking office in mid-May.
At a June 15 news conference, as The Sofia Globe reported at the time, Yanev slammed the situation his administration inherited from the previous government as one of “systemic disorder and lack of rules” and spoke of “corruption disguised in a plausible and lawful form”.
GERB-UDF complained that “numerous statements and unproven allegations” by Yanev, caretaker Interior Minister Boiko Rashkov and caretaker Finance Minister Assen Vassilev amounted to a call to vote for other parties, undermined the prestige of the previous GERB government and were a direct call not to vote for GERB-UDF in the July elections.
Borissov’s coalition asked for Yanev, Rashkov and Vassilev to be sanctioned under the Electoral Code.
The CEC said that the complaint did not specify the time and place the breaches took place.
It said that the statement cited in the complaint did not contain a direct call to vote for a candidate, party, coalition or initiative committee, nor not to vote for GERB-UDF.
“These statements contain only information made public by the caretaker government in presenting its report,” the CEC said.
It said that the assessments by political scientists and political communications lecturers cited by GERB were of no legal significance for deciding on the complaint.
Announcing its June 22 decision, the CEC said that the decision was subject to appeal in the Supreme Administrative Court within three days.
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com:
