Invalid Ballots in Bulgaria Reach Staggering 6.4%

Two of the spokespersons of Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission - Biser Troyanov and Ralitsa Negentsova. Photo by BGNES

The invalid ballots from the October 23 presidential vote are 229 844 or 6.4% of all ballots cast, Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has informed.

There is about the same percentage of invalid ballots in the local elections, according to CEC spokesperson, Biser Troyanov.

Troyanov says the invalid ballots include those that were not marked with the only permissible sigh X and those that were not stamped twice by the members of commissions at voting polls.

These percentages are much higher compared to presidential elections in 2006 when 2 882 940 ballots were cast with 77 374 invalid or only 2.6% of the vote. In 2006, there weren't two votes in one day while the contenders for the presidential office were 7, instead of the current 18. There weren't any restrictions in how the choice must be marked either.

After CEC finished the ballot counting and announced the official results nearly two days beyond the deadline set by the law, it turned out that the difference between the top runner, Rosen Plevneliev, nominated by the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB)and the candidate of the opposition left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Ivaylo Kalfin, is 11% or 375 080 votes.

Several NGOs, which monitored the elections, have voiced alarm over the staggering number of invalid ballots with Transparency without Borders stressing that any percentage above 3% means the election results could not be deemed binding.

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