Democratic Bulgaria (DB) has called on the members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) picked by Progressive Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane to resign. The coalition says they refused to find a violation in complaints against the press office of the Council of Ministers, DB's press office said.
The move follows a CEC ruling on Wednesday that Prime Minister Rumen Radev's call to back Iliana Yotova was not an administrative breach of the Electoral Code. The Council of Ministers later shared his remarks on its own channels.
People filed 105 complaints over the call. The commission passed the ruling by 8 votes to 7.
"There is a new coalition deal between Progressive Bulgaria and Vazrazhdane, and their members on the CEC must resign," said Bozhidar Bozhanov, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria.
He said the CEC is not a department of the Council of Ministers or part of the executive, and should not do what Radev and Yotova say. Such bodies must be independent, Bozhanov insisted. The commission protects the integrity of elections, not the comfort and peace of an "executive that has lost all sense of limits", he said.
DB MP Aleksandra Sterkova said the members picked by PB and Vazrazhdane tried from the start to stop the complaint from being looked at on its merits. She said they wanted to reply with a letter, which cannot be challenged later in court.
Sterkova said a series of complaints have come in since the campaign began, including one over children being drawn into Yotova's campaign. She said the CEC again sent them on to another institution with a letter.
"We will not tolerate a refusal to carry out the duties of overseeing the election rules," Sterkova said.