The Supreme Administrative Court annulled and returned for reconsideration to another panel of Sofia Administrative Court the decision in the case concerning the election of the mayor of Sofia Municipality, due to violations of the rules of court procedure.
The appealed decision of the first instance court confirmed the decision of the Municipal Election Commission - Sofia, by which Vasil Terziev was declared elected Mayor of Sofia Municipality in the second round with 175 044 valid votes, representing 48.20% of the valid votes. The runner-up, Vanya Grigorova, received 170,258 votes, representing 46.89% of the valid votes.
The case before the Supreme Administrative Court was initiated based on a cassation complaint by Vanya Grigorova, in her capacity as a candidate for mayor of Sofia Municipality, nominated by the coalition "BSP for Bulgaria," and by Ivan Takov, in his capacity as the chairman and representative of "BSP for Bulgaria."
The reasoning of the first-instance court reveals that the Administrative Court of Sofia-city found several violations to be conclusively established – the absence of flash drives provided by the manufacturer for the respective polling station election commissions, the electronic signature used to sign files on the flash drives was not qualified and did not comply with the legal requirements, as it was submitted by the respective polling station election commission, but not for specific individuals.
The Administrative Court of Sofia-city also considered the corrections in the protocols of the polling station election commissions to be an obvious factual error, which contradicts the provisions of the Election Code.
The Supreme Court judges accept that the Administrative Court of Sofia-city did not address the substance of these violations and their significance and impact on ensuring the credibility and reliability of the machine voting, including the printed machine receipts/ballots.
The Sofia City Administrative Court also did not accept all the conclusions of the experts who had prepared the forensic-technical experts' reports, and at the same time referred to them.
The expert reports concerning the absence and authentication of the flash drives were not accepted as evidence. The Supreme Court therefore held that there had been breaches of the rules of court.
On the basis of all this, the case is referred back to the Sofia City Administrative Court.
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