Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court clashes with prosecutors over election recalculation
The adjustment of Bulgaria’s October 27 2024 early parliamentary election results, ordered by the Constitutional Court last month, has prompted a public row in which the court accused other state entities of trying to block the resolution of the case.
After the court ordered the recalculation, the Central Election Commission (CEC) passed on the data to state IT firm Informatsionno Obslujvane, as it is the entity tasked with processing election results.
Late on March 10, the Constitutional Court president Pavlina Panova said in a televised address that its case was being “sabotaged” by the prosecutor’s office, which requested all data in this case.
Panova said that prosecutors did not have jurisdiction in this matter and the actions of other state institutions were blocking the court’s activity.
Later, the court made public the prosecutor’s office request for information and said that it would not comply with the demand, since it was outside the prosecutors’ jurisdiction.
The accusation prompted a special sitting of Parliament on March 11, at which the head of Informatsionno Obslujvane, Ivailo Filipov, said that he was the one to seek the involvement of the prosecutor’s office, saying that it was because in seven voting precincts, the Constitutional Court’s recount data showed zero votes, whereas video recordings indicated that ballots had been cast.
Despite the company saying on March 10 that it could not complete the task to recalculate the election results, Filipov told MPs on March 11 that the adjustment work was under way and Informatsionno Obslujvane would comply with the March 12 deadline to complete the task, set by the CEC.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
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