Bulgaria’s 2024 elections: Peevski MRF cases against electoral commission decisions head to court

As the process of registration for Bulgaria’s October early parliamentary elections nears its end, the Supreme Administrative Court is to hold hearings on September 11 in two cases of appeals by Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms – New Beginning against Central Electoral Commission (CEC) decisions.

One appeal is against the CEC decision not to allow the coalition to register for local by-elections on October 20 and the other against the CEC decision not to allow it to register as a coalition for the October 27 National Assembly elections.

The CEC earlier denied registration to two coalitions, one Peevski’s and the other the one formed by those loyal to MRF founder Ahmed Dogan, called Democracy, Rights and Freedoms.

The episodes are part of the saga of the rift between Peevski, who is subject to US and UK sanctions because of large-scale corruption (allegations he denies) and Dogan, a former communist-era State Security agent who is honorary president of the MRF, a party he founded in 1990 and led for decades. In late August, Dogan’s faction announced the expulsion of Peevski and Peevski’s loyalists from the MRF.

At a briefing on September 10, the CEC confirmed that it had received an application from the MRF for registration as a stand-alone party in the October 27 elections.

As The Sofia Globe reported earlier, that application was lodged by the Dogan faction.

The CEC said that the application had been sent to the Civil Registration and Administrative Services directorate for the signatures on the application to be checked against official records.

Once that check has been done, the documents will be reviewed by the CEC and it will decide whether or not to approve registration.

Asked at the news conference whether it was possible that the MRF would not appear in the October elections, CEC spokesperson Tsvetozar Tomov said that he hoped that matters would not reach a point where Bulgarian voters would not be able to vote for a party of their choice.

“However, the question should be directed to the representatives of the MRF, who have sharply opposite positions in relation to the registration for the elections,” Tomov said.

Responding to a question, he said that the CEC was not subjected to political pressure and did not make decisions on the basis of pressure.

CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva, referring to the application lodged by Kornelia Ninova loyalists to register the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for the October elections, said that BSP acting leader Atanas Zafirov had requested the withdrawal of this application.

The Ninova loyalists, Ivan Chenchev and Georgi Svilenski – both, like her, recently expelled from the BSP, lodged the application soon before the September 9 ruling by the Supreme Court of Cassation confirming that Ninova no longer officially represented the BSP.

Mateva said that the CEC had yet to make a decision on Zafirov’s request for the application to be cancelled.

Zafirov, arriving at CEC headquarters on September 10, told reporters: “We are here to cancel yesterday’s illegal registration”.

He said that the actual registration of the BSP “according to the law, the rules, the statute of the party and the requests made in advance” is pending.

The coalition formed after talks led by the BSP’s acting leadership, called BSP-United Left, was expected to lodge its registration application on the afternoon of September 10.

(Photo: Jason Morrison)

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