Free and fair elections
In Bulgaria, the elections for the European Parliament were held on 7 June. The parliamentary elections were held the following month, on July 5, and local elections were held in some regions in November. The elections changed the political power in the country. The triple coalition that governed until July was replaced by the centre-right GERB party, which won both the parliamentary and the local elections. Despite the election results, the outgoing coalition did its best to ensure itself an advantage in the pre-election and the election period, including through legislative changes adopted in its interest and through the use of the state media for its propaganda. Some ethnic minorities and independent candidates were discriminated against in the election process.
The Election of Members of Parliament Act was amended in April 2009. The amendments included several new provisions, two of which generated a wide public debate and were reviewed by the Constitutional Court on request by a group of MPs. The firs provision created, in addition to the proportional representation, 31 single mandate areas – one in each region, and more than one in two regions. The members of parliament in these single mandate areas were to be elected with a significant difference in the number of votes cast in the different regions. In the largest one, Varna, an MP would represent almost four times more voters than in the smallest one, Vidin. The other provision introduced a new 8% eligibility threshold for the distribution of mandates to coalitions under the proportional system (unlike the parties, for which the threshold remained 4%). The Constitutional Court held that the second provision was unconstitutional, but allowed the first one. Thus, the principle of equality of votes enshrined in the Constitution was compromised.
The central and some area electoral committees were dominated by representatives of the ruling coalition who managed to funnel the coalition’s interests, sometimes in violation of the law. For example, the Central Electoral Committee refused to have one of the main political powers, the Blue Coalition, registered for the elections. The refusal was later overruled by the Supreme Administrative Court and the court’s chair stated publicly that he was pressured to uphold the refusal. A significant number of sectoral electoral committees’ managements consisted exclusively of representatives of the ruling coalition.
Most TV channels and media tried to provide a balanced coverage of the election campaign. However, the state-owned Bulgarian National Television (BNT) demonstrated partiality to the ruling coalition, more specifically to one of its constituent parties, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). According to the media monitoring of OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), which sent a limited election observation mission, during the election campaign the BNT had devoted 54% of its political and election prime time news coverage to the state officials representing the ruling coalition. There was a notable tendency to cover the activities of BSP cabinet ministers positively. Of the government’s coverage, 68% positive and barely 11% negative in tone.[1]
The funding of the election campaign was not transparent for all political parties. Although the law does not establish a ceiling for donations, it doesn’t allow to differentiate the regular from the electoral donations to political parties.
The ethnic minorities, for which Bulgarian is not a mother tongue, were discriminated during the election campaign. Contrary to the international standards and best practices, the Election of Members of Parliament Act explicitly provides that election campaigns are to be held only in the official Bulgarian language (Article 55, para. 2). Thus, the Bulgarian citizens who do not understand Bulgarian did not manage to participate effectively in the campaign. Some ethnic minorities were subjected to public condemnation by extreme right nationalist groups, such as the Ataka party.
The law also discriminates independent candidates. It stipulates that they may only register in single mandate electoral areas, while parties and coalitions are allowed to register their candidates both in the single and multiple mandate electoral areas. The law posts a high barrier for support to independent candidates (at least 10,000 voters in the single mandate area, in which the candidate is registered). In violation of international standards and best practices, this barrier is so high that in some electoral areas it accounts for more than 2.4% of total voters, while in other areas it is closer to 10%. In comparison, the political parties need to prove support from at least 15,000 voters, and the coalitions – from at least 20,000 voters, but for the whole country. Similarly, the steering committees supporting independent candidates are required to make a 15,000 BGN (7,500 EUR) interest-free deposit for a single candidate; for the parties and the coalitions the requirement is to deposit 50,000 BGN and 100,000 BGN (25,000 EUR and 50,000 EUR), respectively, for all of their registered candidates. The interest-free deposit is paid back only if the independent candidate, the party or the coalition gets 1% of the votes of the respective voters.
[1] ODIHR/OSCE, Republic of Bulgaria: 5 July 2009 Parliamentary Elections, OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission, Final Report, 30 September 2009, p. 15.
