Constitutional Court consolidated for a joint hearing the five cases challenging the results of Oct. 27 snap elections

The Constitutional Court has consolidated into a single case the five cases that were initiated following appeals challenging the results of the October 27 early parliamentary elections for the 51st National Assembly. The five cases have been consolidated for a joint hearing.

The Court has appointed an expertise which is to be completed by January 10, 2025. The experts have been tasked with conducting a recount of the votes cast with paper ballots and those from machine voting in 1,777 polling stations and determining the following:

· Whether the number of valid votes cast for each candidate list (parties, coalitions, independent candidates) corresponds to the numbers recorded in the protocol of the respective polling station commission;

· Whether the number of valid votes cast via machine voting for each candidate list (parties, coalitions, independent candidates) matches the information from the memory of the specialized voting machines;

· Whether the protocols of the polling station commissions, as per Article 273 of the Electoral Code, were compiled in accordance with the requirements of Article 274, paragraph 3 of the Electoral Code;

Additionally, in 442 polling stations, the experts are to verify whether the number of invalid ballots recorded in the protocol as per Article 273 of the Electoral Code corresponds to the number of invalid ballots submitted to the district election commissions by the polling station commissions.

The Court has also appointed the experts responsible for the investigation: Aleksandar Andreev, Vladimir Dimitrov, Vladimir Penev, Georgi Boyadzhiev, Zlatogor Minchev, Ivilina Alexieva-Robinson, Kamen Ivanov, Krasimir Kalinov, Margarita Zlatareva, Maria Todorova, Milen Petrov, Milka Lambeva-Stefanova, Nikola Yanev, Nikolay Kirov, Pencho Marinov, Rumyana Stoeva-Siderova, Svetla Dimitrova, and Stefka Stoeva.

The Court has instructed the Central Election Commission to:

- Provide the expert investigation with the election materials from the specified polling stations;

– Within two weeks, submit information on the reasons why the polling stations that do not fall under the exception of Article 57, paragraph 1, item 34 of the Electoral Code did not conduct real-time video surveillance and video recording after the election day ended during the vote counting and protocol compilation, and to provide a list of polling stations to which the exception under Article 57, paragraph 1, item 34 of the Electoral Code applies;

– Within three weeks, submit information on changes made to the composition of polling station commissions after the deadline outlined in Article 89, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Electoral Code, including the total number of changes, the weekly breakdown of these changes, at whose suggestion they were made (whether proposed by a commission member, a political party, coalition, or another subject), whether the initial proportional representation of political parties and coalitions in the polling station commission as per Article 92, paragraph 6 of the Electoral Code was maintained, and the factual/legal basis for the changes.

The decision was made unanimously with 11 votes.