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Rumyana Chenalova: The elections were a black spot in our political history

A collection of illegal and criminal actions by various legal entities

Nov 12, 2024 16:02 55

Rumyana Chenalova: The elections were a black spot in our political history  - 1
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The last ones held on 27.10.2024. extraordinary parliamentary elections not only showed the avalanche of systematic violations in the electoral process and the shortcomings in the Electoral Code, but were also a terrifying demonstration of already unceremonious encroachments on a fundamental constitutional right – to choose and be chosen.

This is what Rumyana Chenalova writes for KritichnoBG.

Cancelling these elections would act as a shield and warning against any subsequent attempts to manipulate the vote of the voters. On Wednesday, the 15-day period expires, in which the authorities under Art. 150 of the Constitution can appeal to the Constitutional Court and which are surprisingly silent.

Cancelling these elections would act as a shield and warning against any subsequent attempts to manipulate the vote of the voters. On Wednesday, the 15-day period expires, in which the authorities under Art. 150 of the Constitution can appeal to the Constitutional Court and which are surprisingly silent.

This is why the NGS “Union“ submitted to each of them an opinion based on my analysis of the violations and their impact on the legality of the elections. The analysis was partially used by both political parties and people's representatives when preparing their requests to the authorities under Art. 150 of the Constitution and CC, as the analysis is in its entirety in the opinion.

Violations can be classified into the following groups:

1. Violations in the formation of the polling stations and compilation of the voter lists

2. Violations in the formation of the composition of the SIK and the replacement of their members

2.1. Violations in forming the composition of the SIK under Art. 91 and art. 92 paragraphs 5 and 6 of the IC

2.2. Violations when replacing members of the SIK under Art. 51 paragraph 2, Art. 72 paragraph 1 items 4 and 5 and Art. 91 paragraph 5 IC

2.3. Violations arising from the nature of the decisions of the RIC and CEC, issued pursuant to Art. 53 para. 4 item 2 and Art. 70 para. 4 IC.

2.4. Violations related to the implementation of CEC

's instructions

3. Violations committed during voting

3.1. Violations when entering the additional page to the voter list.

4. Violations in reporting election results from machine voting and voting with paper ballots

4.1. Violations related to video surveillance

​4.2. Violations in the counting of votes from voting with paper ballots and by machine voting, incl. noted preferences

5. Violations when filling out the protocols of the SIC

5.1. about unsatisfied controls

5.2. regarding amendments made to the sectional protocols

5.3. Manipulating the vote by transferring a vote for one party to another party

The violations in drawing up the voter lists and forming the polling stations are striking. Electoral lists are drawn up by the municipal administrations in the settlements where the population register is kept, and are signed by the mayor of the municipality. Electoral lists are drawn up separately for each polling station.

The violations in drawing up the voter lists and forming the polling stations are striking. Electoral lists are drawn up by the municipal administrations in the settlements where the population register is kept, and are signed by the mayor of the municipality. Electoral lists are drawn up separately for each polling station.

The voter lists are not updated, and the lists for voting in other countries are drawn up according to the written applications received by Bulgarian citizens. What is the obstacle for our diplomatic and consular missions to receive information about Bulgarian citizens registered with addresses in other countries? This would help create PEACE “ Foreign“, the kind of candidate MPs stop talking about when they become MPs.

Electoral sections are formed by the mayors of municipalities, and according to Art. 9 para. 2 of the IC, as many sections are formed in populated areas as many times the number 1000 is contained in the number of voters.

According to NSI data as of 31.12.2023. The population of the municipality of Kardzhali is 64,690 people, of whom under 18. are 10,066 or the persons with electoral rights are 54,624 persons. According to the rules of Art. 9 para. 2 IC the number of sections should be 55. The phenomenon is massive and can explain the findings published on social networks for over 800 phantom sections.

In Kardzhali district, for example, a total of 498 sections were formed. According to NSI data, as of 31.12.2023. The population of Kardzhali region is 146,562 people, of which 126,990 are voters, i.e. the total number of sections eligible for formation on the territory of the entire region is 127. However, 157 electoral sections were formed for only one of the municipalities in the Kardzhali region – Kardzhali municipality. According to NSI data as of 31.12.2023. The population of the municipality of Kardzhali is 64,690 people, of whom under 18. are 10,066 or the persons with electoral rights are 54,624 persons. According to the rules of Art. 9 para. 2 IC the number of sections should be 55. The phenomenon is massive and can explain the findings published on social networks for over 800 phantom sections.

The population of Momchilgrad municipality is 15,038 people, and a total of 51 sections have been formed, and the composition of 51 SIKs has been appointed accordingly. The rule of Art. 92 para. 4 was also not observed, as the number of appointed members of the SIC exceeds the permissible one. Thus, in the village of Chaika and the village of Neofit Bozvelievo, as well as in other villages in the region with a population of less than 500 people, the commissions have 9 members. This illegal way of forming the sections and appointing the commissions leads to impermissible political influence of the parties represented in the parliament, and on the other hand puts the small parties in a disadvantageous position, which do not have the financial ability to ensure control through advocates.

The violations during the formation of the SIK and the replacement of their members are scandalous. At the will of the political entities and without the requirements of Art. 91 para. 5 in conjunction with Art. 51 paragraph 2 and Art. 72 IC thousands of members of the SEC have been replaced, incl. on election day. The RIC divided the DPS quota in half to satisfy both DPS chairmen, who separately submitted lists of SEC members for the same party. When appealing the decisions of the RIC, the Central Electoral Commission ruled with contradictory and mutually exclusive motives – once, that it does not matter which of the two chairmen will request the replacement of the already established members of the SIC, as the interests of the party were protected, another time – in the opposite sense.

However, the paradoxical thing is that, regardless of the reasons, when voting on the decision in the CEC, a quorum was not formed and decisions were made to reject it – i.e. you may be right, but we decide. The quota principle in the formation of the CEC played a very bad joke on the Bulgarian voters. Instead of getting justice, they get a denial of justice, as expressed by the Supreme Court in one of its decisions from 2014.

It is argued that the videos did not have the quality of evidence. Video recording is arranged in the IC as a guarantee for transparent and fair reporting of the election results, and the data in the recordings testify to the mass theft, cancellation, transfer of votes by members of the SEC – a circumstance raising the question of whether and how much of the voters' vote was changed, and whether this does not completely taint the held elections.

Protocols compiled en masse by SIK are incorrect – there are inconsistencies in the control lines, the corrections of numbers and words have not been certified according to the CEC Methodological Guidelines. The absence of the required requisites for the corrections should lead to the non-reporting of the corrected data, respectively the summary result.

It is striking that during the voting abroad, the number of people who voted was many times greater than those registered in the electoral rolls. The possibility of being added to the voter lists is regulated in the IC, as the persons who are included in the lists for voting outside the country, but who came to vote at their permanent address, vote after presenting an identity document and a declaration according to the model of the election papers, that he has not voted and will not vote elsewhere. It is obvious that when the elections are held on 27.10.2024 abroad, the number of Bulgarian citizens who came to vote is many times greater than those entered in the electoral rolls. No control has been exercised in respect of the vote so conducted – are the required declarations available, is there double voting.

So in section No. 321180608 with address: Turkey, Istanbul, commune. Esenyurt 2 (Karach) 75 persons are listed in the voting list, and on election day there were 322 voters, of which 277 were included in the additional list. As can be seen from the protocol drawn up by the SIC, all voters voted by machine. It is a publicly known fact that our compatriots in Turkey do not know the Bulgarian language en masse, and this is the most – little casts doubt on who exactly voted and how. The IC excludes the preparation of a video recording for the sections abroad, which rule has a discriminatory nature against our compatriots abroad, as it does not provide guarantees for control over the honest reporting of the election result.

When counting the vote, CEC members everywhere violated the rules listed in the Methodical Guidelines of the CEC – the ballots are not opened one by one, they are not shown to the attendees, incl. in front of the recorder's camera, the vote was not communicated to the voter. The members of the CEC acted erratically, there are no protocols for the distribution of functions, valid ballots are deliberately turned into invalid ones. There are huge differences between the number of counted ballots from the machine voting and the data of the election machines. The Democratic Center Artificial Intelligence published on 02.11.2024 an analysis based on the data from the flash memories of the machines and the protocols from the SIC, in which they found 781 cases of overwritten votes or non-working flash memories from the machine voting. In section 013700020, for example, during the recording, 20 machine voting ballots for DPS-Novo Nachalo are announced, after which they also announce how many are without and how many with preferences. 20 votes were also counted from the flash drive of the machine. In the protocol, however, the data is surprisingly different. DPS Novo-Nachalo already has 37 votes from the machines. Meanwhile, other parties, such as PP Velichie, have 0 votes instead of the 3 they received from the machine. In Section 013300014, during the recording, the number of machine voting ballots for GERB-SDS is not announced. 42 votes were counted from the flash drive of the machine. However, the data are different in the protocol. GERB-SDS already has 53 votes from the machines. At the same time, other parties, such as PP-MECH, have one vote less than the machines reported.

All these violations, as well as their mass perpetration, represent a gross violation of the equal and direct electoral right, the meaning of which, generally presented, is expressed in a requirement for equality before the law, an understanding consistently supported in the practice of the Constitutional Court (Decision No. 6 of 2010; Decision No. 4 of 2016; Decision No. 10 of 2022, etc. The constitutional imperative covers the prohibition of discrimination, as well as the denial of privileges on grounds exhaustively listed in Art. 6, para. 2 of the Constitution signs (Decision No. 14 of 1992).

The elections of 27.10.2024. are a black mark in our political history. They are a set of illegal and criminal actions of various legal entities, including officials, as well as a signal of the total control of the state by the mafia. Regardless of whether the 51 National Assembly will be able to produce a government or whether there will be new elections, the authorities under Art. 150 are obliged to appeal to the Constitutional Court because the violations are so severe and widespread that they taint the election result entirely and destroy the little remaining trust in state institutions.

Otherwise, the Bulgarians will not vote - until there is retribution, punished, fired, regardless of position and rank. The constituted parliament was illegitimate, and the institutional crisis led to the collapse of statehood. A reboot is needed through new people throughout the system guaranteeing our electoral rights. A new Electoral Code is needed and harsh penalties for non-compliance. Statehood has been fatally shot and the fate of it depends only on the Constitutional Court. Let's hope for wisdom and morality.

Otherwise, the Bulgarians will not vote - until there is retribution, punished, fired, regardless of position and rank. The constituted parliament was illegitimate, and the institutional crisis led to the collapse of statehood. A reboot is needed through new people throughout the system guaranteeing our electoral rights. A new Electoral Code is needed and harsh penalties for non-compliance. Statehood has been fatally shot and the fate of it depends only on the Constitutional Court. Let's hope for wisdom and morality.

Note: The analysis was provided by Rumyana Chenalova to KritichnoBG and she bears her responsibility for the reliability of the facts and conclusions in the analysis!