In the risky sections there was a lower voter turnout compared to previous elections. This conclusion was made on “This Morning“ on bTV by Iva Lazarova from the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment. According to her, this is a result of the police actions against the bought vote. The organization had observers in over 30 settlements on election day.
“Before a full review of the recordings is made, this cannot be said with certainty. In general, the elections were calmer. The winner was clear in advance, the problems were who would pass the barrier“, added mathematician and former deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission, Prof. Mikhail Konstantinov.
According to him, in these elections one parliamentary seat “costs“ about 10 thousand votes, and to cross the 4 percent barrier about 120 thousand votes are needed.
“Voters abroad, as usual, had no influence at all. They have weight, but they do not change the electoral result and the number of mandates. An example of this is the 2017 elections, again many votes came from abroad – over 150 thousand, who changed zero mandates, because they were in the same proportion as in the country“, he explained and added that the situation would not change if there was a “Abroad“ region.
Regarding video surveillance, Lazarova pointed out that technical problems could be due to outdated equipment, internet coverage or the capacity of people in the commissions.
“We attended several trainings of section election commissions in different regions, the longest we observed was about an hour and a half. The Sofia ones were extremely short, important details are omitted, there is very low attendance. Hundreds of members were replaced at the last minute. Everything is written in the methodological instructions, but someone should read them“, she added.
Prof. Konstantinov expressed doubt that the results would be challenged before the Constitutional Court. Asked about the 1997 elections, when Ivan Kostov also had a parliamentary majority, the mathematician said:
“Back then, the battle was going on left-right, BSP-SDF. The problem was not who would enter and who would not, but who would win, because the country had not yet decided where it was going. There was no EU, there was no NATO, the fight was about geopolitical orientation. Now there is no such thing“.