Court Refunds Electoral Deposit to Rightist Bulgarian Party

The October 23 presidential elections drove a wedge between DSB leader Ivan Kostov (L) and UDF leader Martin Dimitrov. Photo by BGNES

Administrative Court Sofia City (ACSC) has revoked the Central Election Commission's (CEC) refusal to remove the registration of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) from the participants list for the October 23 presidential elections.

ACSC's Friday decision, as cited by the court's press office, further obliges CEC to issue a decision for the reimbursement of the BGN 10 000 deposit submitted by the right-wing party with the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

ACSC magistrates point out that CEC has failed to give instructions to DSB in relation to omissions in its claim for the cancellation of the party's registration and for the reimbursement of the deposit.

ACSC's decision reminds that CEC should have provided feedback about the omissions detected within three days, as the Election Code requires.

In early September, DSB insisted on the withdrawal of its registration submitted in August on behalf of the Blue Coalition in which it participates alongside the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF).

This happened after UDF joined forces with another minor rightist party, the United Democratic Forces, for the presidential elections.

Primary elections in the Blue Coalition determined UDF's Rumen Hristov to be the Coalition's candidate for President of Bulgaria, while DSB's Proshko Proshkov to be the nominee for Mayor of Sofia.

What irked Ivan Kostov's DSB was that the United Democratic Forces tabled their own candidate for Mayor of Sofia, erstwhile Sofia Mayor Stefan Sofiyanski, in a move that DSB saw as undermining their Proshkov.

The move made DSB question the reliability of UDF as a coalition partner.

At that point, DSB decided to pull out of the elections, saying that it will stick to the initial agreement and support Rumen Hristov at the presidential vote.

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