SAC rejects 20 complaints against municipal election commissions

The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) rejected today all the 20 complaints of BSP (Bulgarian Socialist Party) and MRF (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) against the appointed municipal election commissions’ leadership teams. Local organisations of MRF and BSP protested against the appointment of GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) representatives in the leadership of the local election commissions in the Sofia capital, in the towns of Sliven, Haskovo, Sevlievo, Pazardjik, Dryanovo, Harmanli, Gorna Oryahovitsa, Gabrovo, Tryavna, Lovech, Yambol and Bansko, and in the villages of Lesnovo and Samuil.

In all these places, the parties and coalitions have failed to reach an agreement as to who will occupy some of the positions in the local election commission. In such cases, the decision is made by the Central Election Commission (CEC). The Electoral Code stipulates that no single party or coalition should have a majority in the municipal commission, while the chairperson and secretary should be representatives of different political formations. But in the end, the chairpersons and deputy chairs of 65 local election commissions happen to be from GERB.

On equal terms, CEC is entitled to decide on the appointment of the proposed members of municipal election commissions, SAC representatives explained today. The magistrates point out that there are no other specific criteria for selecting members of the local election commissions except that no political formation should have a majority and the chairman and secretary should be from different political forces. SAC’s decisions are final and are not subject to appeal.

The Electoral Code specifies that the local election commissions’ members should be an odd number and should be selected while maintaining the ratio between the political forces represented in Parliament. The Code does not allow for a party or a coalition to have a majority in the election commissions and this was one of the reasons for the complaints submitted by MRF and BSP.

Earlier, CEC’s spokesperson Ralitsa Negentsova commented that the decisions of the municipal election commissions were being taken by a two-thirds majority and thus it didn't matter which party the members of their leaderships are from.

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