WCC-Democratic Bulgaria says it pressed CEC on checks on candidates for affiliation to communist State Security
The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has finally provided the necessary information to the Dossier Commission to check which candidates in Bulgaria’s June 2024 elections worked for the country’s communist-era secret services State Security and the Bulgarian People’s Army military intelligence, the We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria coalition said on May 21.
“This happened after the sharp reaction of We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria against the CEC’s initial refusal, for the first time in 17 years, to give the Dossier Commission the names, identity numbers and party affiliation of the candidates for the National Assembly and for the European Parliament,” WCC-DB said in a media statement.
“We managed to fight the CEC, and now the Dossier Commission is underway to let the public know who the State Security cops are among the candidates for the Bulgarian and European Parliament,” WCC-DB MP Ivailo Mirchev said.
The coalition said that CEC’s refusal to provide the data doomed voters to an uninformed choice ahead of the June 9 vote.
The Dossier Commission would lose a lot of time and possibly find out long after the election which candidates from which political formation had affiliations with the former totalitarian special services, the statement said.
“This composition of the CEC is dominated by GERB, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Bulgarian Socialist Party, and apparently this majority is trying to hide important facts from Bulgarian society,” WCC-DB MP Martin Dimitrov said.
The Dossier Commission is empowered by law to check people in various walks of public life for affiliation to State Security and the communist-era military intelligence.
Bulgaria’s constitution does not allow lustration and being identified as having worked for the communist-era secret services is not a bar to seeking or holding public office. An example is Georgi Purvanov, Bulgaria’s president for two terms, who was “Agent Gotse” to State Security.
State Security people have been identified in all Bulgaria’s elections since the Dossier Commission was voted into existence in 2006. Recent examples include the April 2023 early parliamentary elections, and the October 2023 mayoral elections.
(Archive photo: Dossier Commission)
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