No I think that the CEC works under any political pressure, at least from the actions so far it is not visible. What I see is the use of the Central Electoral Commission for political matters, which is not part of the powers and will not lead to calming the situation. Such a specific case, as we are observing at the moment in relation to both one political force and another political force, has not yet occurred in the CEC. This is what the former chairman of the CEC, Alexander Andreev, said in the studio of "The Day ON AIR".
He recalled that in the past during the registration of another political force, namely the SDF, there was an issue that was raised with a view to representation.
"The CEC has always worked on the basis of the Electoral Code or, before that, the laws that governed the previous elections. The lack of certain publicity creates doubts about the work and that there is some pressure on the institution. But it is owed by the CEC members, because there has been no such case so far. From now on, it remains for us to monitor the processes and see within the time limits whether the given parties will register or whether they will appeal a certain decision", added Andreev for Bulgaria ON AIR.
When asked if the time for registration could be extended, he replied: "The deadline for registration is until 5:30pm tomorrow, when registration applications are due last. When we have an appeal against the decision to refuse registration or with the completion of a coalition, it can be extended, of course. This is allowed by the Electoral Code. But the first application must be submitted by tomorrow.
"In order to reach the court, we must have a decision of the CEC and it must be appealed to YOU by the interested party. The CEC will have to issue a decision tomorrow. The GRAO inspection is currently awaited. One of the essential stages in the election process is the registration of the participants. The institution should not be burdened with any political overtones, because it should be sufficiently distinguished from all the participants in the vote," recalled the former chairman of the CEC.
According to him, the CEC faces a number of challenges.
"There are issues that need to be addressed with the machine vote, the implementation of training to allow the reduction of errors in filling out the protocols. The explanatory company to prepare both the voters and the members of the SEC. The point here is that a large number of them do not undergo training, and those who do are replaced at the last minute by others. This prevents consistency. Voting abroad is also related to machines," added Alexander Andreev.