In Bulgaria, last year's elections may be deemed illegal. Here’s what we know about the situation.

The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria has mandated the Central Election Commission to recount the votes from the recent parliamentary elections held in October 2024. This was reported by the Constitutional Court of the Republic, according to UNN.

Details

It is noted that the Central Election Commission has yet to comment on the court's decision, and the judges stated that they will only be able to determine the legality of the elections after the recount is completed.

Specifically, the court refers to an audit of data from over 2,200 polling stations, which represents 17% of the total number of stations. At nearly half of the analyzed stations, the number of valid votes cast for candidate lists was altered.

At one-third of the mentioned polling stations, the volume of invalid ballots recognized did not match the actual results of the audit.

The Constitutional Court has ordered the Central Election Commission to fully recount all ballots and votes and establish new results.

Supplement

Extraordinary elections for the Bulgarian parliament took place at the end of October 2024. It was reported that a pro-Western center-right coalition of the "Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria" party and the GERB-SDS Democratic Forces Union entered parliament. The liberal-conservative alliance of the "Continuing the Change" party and the "Democratic Bulgaria" coalition came in second in the elections. The pro-Russian party "Revival" also made it into parliament.

Reminder

In June of last year, Bulgaria simultaneously held early parliamentary and European elections, during which approximately 13,000 polling stations were opened for voting.

Representatives of 20 political parties and 11 coalitions contested 240 seats in the Bulgarian parliament. According to the Central Election Commission, 6,100 candidates are competing for parliamentary mandates, while 418 are vying for seats in the European Parliament.