The Supreme Administrative Court overturned the decision of the Municipal Election Commission-Montana, which the election of the mayor of the village of Rangel Ivanov was confirmed, BNT reported.
Ivanov was elected in the regular local elections held in October 2023, but due to a lot of violations during the election day and then during the counting of the ballots, one of his opponents - Vanya Metodieva, filed a case for counting the vote. The BNT team again tried to find the parties to the dispute.
After the Supreme Administrative Court twice overturned the decisions of the Administrative Court in Montana, which recognized the decision of the OIC Montana to elect Rangel Ivanov as mayor of the village of Gabrovnica, yesterday the Supreme Court published its decision canceling the elections.
"With a decision from yesterday, the SAC canceled the decision of the OIC Montana for the election of a mayor of a town hall, from here on the following is to be expected - the OIC must immediately notify the CEC, which has a 14-day period to notify the President of the Republic, with him also the deadline is 14 days for the appointment, respectively, of a decree for the new election of a mayor of a town hall," said Eng. Marius Konov, secretary of the Montana Municipality.
In its reasons, the Supreme Administrative Court canceled the elections in the village of Gabrovnica, due to significant violations in the electoral process, which lead to the impossibility of establishing the actual will of the voters.
"I have nothing to comment on, no, no statement and no comment, nothing to comment on.
I will become mayor, we will not become mayor, but you are only giving voice to negativity. I don't like such things," said Rangel Petrov, former mayor of the village of Gabrovnitsa.
"It was very difficult to fight, but we are satisfied with YOUR decision. You have once again shown to the AS Montana that there were violations that were not detected in three cases in Montana," said Vanya Metodieva, candidate for mayor of the village of Gabrovnica.
Your decision comes at a very difficult time. Both persons who are employed in the Gabrovnica City Hall and can temporarily perform the position of "mayor" are in the hospital with a seriously deteriorated health condition, which puts the Montana municipality in a very difficult situation - who will temporarily take over the post of mayor of the village until the new early elections are held, which are just beginning to be organized. The court's decision is final.