Central Election Commission: There Will Be No New Counting of Ballots from the Latest Parliamentray Elections

The Central Election Commission (CEC) held a meeting on February 27 after the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered a redistribution of the results from the parliamentary elections due to numerous violations identified by the expert reports in the case before the CC. There will be no re-counting of the ballots from the vote.

The CEC decided to send the CC’s ruling to "Information Service" to update the results, as, according to the Electoral Code, they are responsible for the computerised processing of the election process. The CEC was clear that this does not involve a recount of the ballots and election papers.

• Constitutional Court Assigned the Central Election Commission to Recalculate the Results of the Latest Parliamentary Vote

Rositsa Mateva - spokesperson of the CEC: "The CC’s ruling does not assign the CEC to recount ballots. The CEC will not carry out a recount and verification of election papers and materials. The CEC will carry out what is assigned by the CC – based on the protocols sent by the CC, which reflect the results of the examination of election documents and materials from the CC, incorporated in the case, we will carry out the tasks in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Code. In this regard, as the Electoral Code provides that the computerised processing of results and voting data is carried out by "Information Services", I propose we send the court's ruling to "Information Service".

The main question now is how the decision of the CC will also affect the national level and therefore the composition of Parliament and what follows from here. The experts' verification appointed by the court found discrepancies between the actual and the reported result in more than 46% of the inspected polling stations. The polling papers of 2,204 polling stations, representing about 17 per cent of about 12,000 polling stations in the last elections, were subject to scrutiny by the EC.

The main question now is how the CC’s decision will affect the national level and, consequently, the composition of the Parliament, and what follows from here. The court-appointed experts’ review found discrepancies between the actual and reported results in more than 46% of the checked polling stations. The CC’s examination focused on the election documents of 2,204 polling stations, which represents about 17% of the approximately 12,000 polling stations in the latest elections.

Former CEC chairman Alexander Andreev commented on the case in " the BNT's "The Day Begins' programme:

"This is not about a recount in all 12,000 polling stations, but the data from the CC's exper report will be re-entered to see whether it will have an impact on the distribution of seats, both in terms of the total number of valid votes and the distribution among parties and coalitions, and whether it will lead to another party or political force entering Parliament."