The administrative court in the capital ordered that the bags with the receipts from the machine voting in Sofia be opened.
This step was reached in the case against the decision to elect Vasil Terziev as mayor of Sofia. The complaint was filed by Vanya Grigorova, who finished second.
Only the final summary receipts from the machines will be taken out of the bags, and there will be no manual counting for now, reports BTA.
The court also appointed a complex expertise, which should establish whether there is a violation of the protocols. It should be ready by December 1, when the next trial hearing is. The court decided that there will be a manual recount only if violations are found.
Witnesses will be questioned in the case, who will tell about the difficulties with machine voting in Sofia. In addition, more than 1,600 protocols from the sections in Sofia will be provided.
The expertise will have to establish if there are any discrepancies, how much and what the corrections are. It will also determine if there are discrepancies between the protocols and the memories of the machines. The Central Election Commission (CEC) will also have to provide the methodological guidelines for holding the elections.
The Municipal Election Commission (MEC) explained that the protocols from the machines have no evidentiary value, because the receipts placed in the ballot boxes are counted. Machine log data is not subject to decision making.
In the complaint against the election result, it is written that there are violations in a large part of the protocols. In addition, about 400 documents were compiled for cases where there was a problem with machine voting.
The parties to the case also argued about the case with 16 sections, where the machine was stopped. In some records, it was written that the paper ran out, and that did not matter to the result, the courtroom heard.
After the meeting, the OIC explained that only final reports from the machines will be taken out of the bags and will be provided to the court. In parallel, the CEC will have to submit copies of minutes to all sectional election commissions. Only after this analysis will it be judged whether there will be a new census in some sections.
In order for the retrieval of these records to occur, the district administrations will have to open the polling stations where the election documents are stored.
According to Vanya Grigorova, the court has created conditions for voters to be convinced that their choice, as they wanted to make, will be accounted for. Now we will see whether Vasil Terziev is harmed or not, and whether I am harmed or not, Grigorova also said after the end of the court hearing.
She added that she will not vote for Boris Bonev as chairman of the Metropolitan Municipal Council (SOC). The same applies to another representative of “We continue the change – Democratic Bulgaria” (“Save Sofia”).
They did their best to shut down the conversation and manipulate me. There was no clash of ideas, Grigorova pointed out. I will vote for the chairman of the SOS, for whom I decide, said Grigorova.
It is correct that we should all sit at the same table and discuss important priorities, but not by sending invitations to organizations that have nothing in common, commented Grigorova on the occasion of Vasil Terziev’s letter to political leaders.
