Sofia Administrative Court Starts Proceedings on Challenged Local Election Results

Business | November 7, 2011, Monday // 12:53|  views

Administrative Court - Sofia City (ACSC) has opened two trials on the basis of the complaint of the Greens' party seeking a cancellation of the local elections in Sofia. Photo by BGNES

The Administrative Court - Sofia City (ACSC) will review Monday afternoon the request of Bulgaria's Greens party for a cancellation of the results of the October local elections in Bulgaria's capital.

As the formation did not nominate a presidential runner, it cannot contest the outcome of the vote on a nationwide scale.

On 28 October, one day after the Central Electoral Commission came up with the delayed official results, the Greens lodged a complaint, arguing that the integrity of the electoral process had been marred substantially and irreparably through numerous violations of the Election Code.

Among the infringements cited in the complaint were transparent ballots, numerous errors in the so-called "prohibited voter lists" which deprived eligible voters of the right to cast ballots, poor distribution of voters per voting station, which resulted in queues, irregularities surrounding the submission of sensitive election materials to the Sofia Municipal Electoral Commission (MEC), etc.

ACSC opened two cases on the basis of the complaint, one on the legality of the vote for Sofia municipal councilors and one on the vote for a Mayor of Sofia.

The court sessions were scheduled for 07 and 08 November, respectively.

ACSC instructed the Greens that they had to provide evidence of concrete instances of Sofia residents having been prevented from voting by way of erroneous inclusion in  "prohibited voter lists" or by way of enormous queues in front of polling stations, of sensitive election materials having been left unattended, of unwarranted presence of MPs of center-right ruling party GERB in Sofia's MEC and their unauthorized access to ballot papers, of MEC replacing on its own initiative missing or faulty protocols of sectional electoral commissions, etc.

The website of ACSC provides no data about the complaints lodged with Sofia's MEC by the other political parties seeking a cancellation of the local vote, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the right-wing Blue Coalition.

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Tags: Greens, local elections, Presidential elections, Central Electoral Comission, CEC, Municipal Electoral Commission, Administrative Court Sofia City

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