Is Bulgaria heading for another election in an endless cycle?

For the seventh time in three years, Bulgarians went to the polls, and the results shed light on some of the behind-the-scenes manoeuvring. A seemingly minor detail in the counting of votes for the Velichie party, which missed the 4% threshold to enter parliament by about 0.01%, raised questions about manipulation of the election results. In its search for the truth, a team from BNT - Bulgaria's public broadcaster - watched hundreds of CCTV tapes from polling stations and found footage of CEC members tampering with the votes.

"The problem here is not limited to one political formation or another," journalist Milena Kirova told Bulgarian National Radio after her report was broadcast. - Just as we at the BNT show that in this case the Velichie were the victims, the biggest parties could also have lost votes by someone 'transferring' them to another party. We are talking about principles here. The public is already very intolerant of their violation. We go to elections all the time and spend over a hundred million leva each time. We have already spent over 700 million (358 million euro) on early elections alone, and if we add the cost of regular elections, it is 1 billion (510 million euro). This is no small amount of money considering that Bulgaria does not even have a children's hospital."

The chances of a regular government being formed by the political representation in the newly elected parliament are diminishing. It seems that attention is already turning to another early vote.

As the leading political force, GERB has set clear conditions: it can only compromise on the choice of prime minister, and only in the first mandate.

Meanwhile, several political formations have already issued statements calling for the election results to be annulled.

MECH and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS) insisted on a total annulment, while There is Such a People (ITN) called for a partial annulment in those precincts where violations were found.

We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) and Vazrazhdane want a recount, while GERB wants the speaker of the newly elected National Assembly to be elected first, and for that person to come from the GERB list.

For his part, President Rumen Radev said that he would convene the 51st National Assembly on November 11. Asked whether he would refer the matter to the Constitutional Court, he stressed that his action would depend on the steps taken by the parliamentary parties. According to Radev, strengthening parliamentarism is a direct responsibility of the political parties, and trust in parliament depends on their actions to support the integrity of the vote.

It takes 48 signatures from MP's to annul the vote, but the question is whether the results will get rigged in the next vote. After all, the root of the problem is still there.

In this context, former caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev raised an interesting question - why were the heads of regional police departments forced to go on leave before the elections, only to find out later that "one political force has significant results in these respective areas"?

"If the National Assembly itself is constituted in a flawed way as a result of a pile of electoral crimes and misdemeanours, there is no way that the public can have confidence in its work - Demerdzhiev noted in an interview with BNR. - There is no way that the public can have confidence in the individuals that the National Assembly will elect and appoint to other positions from now on.

We have seen on television how the results of the elections are altered. We have seen and understood how the flash memory of the machines has been manipulated. This has been clearly established and there should be consequences. It must be followed up by all the institutions that have the power to act. I am convinced that many of these practices will be exposed. The institutions will inevitably be forced to take some action, or at least those of them that have retained some independence, however small it may be".

Political analyst Georgi Kiryakov said that since the first democratic elections in 1990, there had been vote-rigging. The current political situation puts Bulgarian democracy at risk, the analyst warned, predicting that even if the newly elected Parliament forms a government, it will not be a lasting one:

"If a majority is formed, it will not be stable, it will be temporary. It will last until the political situation changes. And that change would be, for example, if the elections were annulled and a party like Velichie entered parliament. But if there is no radical change in the political situation, there will be elections ad infinitum.

Political analyst Georgi Kiryakov said that there had been vote-rigging since the first democratic elections in 1990. The current political situation puts Bulgarian democracy at risk, the analyst warned, predicting that even if the newly elected Parliament forms a government, it will not be a lasting one:

"If a majority is formed, it will not be stable, it will be temporary. It will last until the political situation changes. And that change would be, for example, if the elections were annulled and a party like Velichie entered parliament. But unless there is a radical change in the political situation, Bulgaria's elections will continue to be a never-ending story.

Author: Darina Grigorova /based on interviews by Stefan Kunchev, Snezhana Ivanova and Georgi Nalbantov, BNR-Horizon/

Photos: BGNES, BNT, personal archive

Translated and posted in English by E. Radkova

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Is Bulgaria heading for another election in an endless cycle?

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