Bulgaria's GERB Files Vote Void Claim

GERB MP and secretary of the GERB parliamentary Group, Tsveta Karaynacheva, photo by BGNES

The formerly-ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, is filing Wednesday a claim with the Constitutional Court to contest and void the election results.

The information was reported by GERB MP and secretary of the GERB parliamentary Group, Tsveta Karaynacheva, speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

The deadline to contest the legitimacy of the elections expires Wednesday.

Under the Constitution, the decision about the void can be made only by the Constitutional Court.

A political party has the right to ask annulment of election results, but only through the intermediation of five institutions – the President, the Supreme Court of Cassations, VKS, the Supreme Administrative Court, VAS, through their respective judges' plenum, the Chief Prosecutor, and at least one fifth of the sworn-in Members of the Parliament.

As the 42nd General Assembly convened Tuesday and the GERB MPs took the oath of office, they can now file the claim.

The party wants the results void as it saw the saga that developed on the day before the elections (reflection day) with the 350 000 ballots discovered inside a printing house, suspected to be used to manipulate the vote, as a stark breach of the law and the ban on all political propaganda on that day, and a heavy blow taking votes away from them.

Karayancheva said on TV that for the first time in the history of Bulgarian Parliament, the foreign diplomats left before the newly elected Speaker delivered his speech as they felt offended by the "circus," staged mainly by the leader of the far-right, nationalist Ataka party, Volen Siderov.

The parties that overcame the 4% threshold to win seats in the May 12 general elections are: the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party of former Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, and their self-proclaimed arch enemies - the far-right nationalist Ataka (Attack).

According to the final count, DPS and BSP together have 120 seats in the 240-seat unicameral Parliament. Ataka, with 23 MPs, is expected to be the kingmaker as GERB has 97 MPs.

Ataka, BSP and DPS have all declared that they would not negotiate with GERB, which narrowly won the election, but will be unable to form a government.

During the Parliament opening ceremony, Siderov delivered a speech that stunned many with its tone and threats. Among many things, he shouted he would support no one in the Parliament.

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