The mayor has continued to govern for a month and a half, despite having a final conviction for vote buying. The case is from the Pomorie village of Bata.
Mayor Georgi Georgiev was detained on suspicion of vote buying in the summer of 2021. After an acquittal by the Pomorie District Court, the mayor was found guilty at the second instance, and the verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Cassation at the end of last year.
08.07.2021 - Mayor Georgi Georgiev was found guilty of giving 50 leva each to four people to vote for a certain political force in the 2021 parliamentary elections. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison with a three-year probationary period. To this day, he continues to perform his duties as mayor.
Veselin Anestiev, municipal councilor from Pomorie: "It is absolutely disturbing. The court has issued a verdict for a serious intentional crime against the political rights of citizens. As far as I know, after the sentence came into force, Mr. Georgi Georgiev was notified in good faith to resign. He did not do so.“
It turns out that the law does not provide for institutions to be notified of the verdict automatically. Therefore, two groups of municipal councilors are filing a report with the Municipal Election Commission with a request that the mayor's mandate be terminated.
"We do not have investigative functions and cannot require the court or the prosecutor's office to provide the relevant documents, since this is explicitly stated in Art. 42, para. 1 of the Local Self-Government Act, which states that these circumstances are established ex officio by the municipal administration,“ said Kolyo Nikolov, Chairman of the Electoral Commission – Pomorie.
Therefore, the commission is now waiting for the mayor of Pomorie, on whose territory the village of Bata is located, to provide the documents for the verdict.
"They want the official documents from us, but we don't have them. And today we have sent a letter to the District Court – Pomorie to provide us with all the decisions. Once we receive them, we will submit them to the Municipal Election Commission. If they decide that new elections should be held, elections are already scheduled by the president and we hold extraordinary elections," explained Ivan Aleksiev, Mayor of Pomorie Municipality.
The convicted mayor Georgi Georgiev refused to talk to BNT, even by phone. We are looking for him at his workplace.
08.07.2021, although the court did not impose a punishment on him not to hold state or public office, according to lawyers, Georgi Georgiev cannot run for mayor until the 3-year probationary period of his sentence expires.