The President: The readiness of the CEC to organize transparent and fair elections depends on having legitimate and effective institutions after them

The willingness of the CEC to organize transparent and fair elections depends on having legitimate and effective institutions and the real exercise of democracy after them. This was stated by President Rumen Radev during a working meeting of "Dondukov" 2 with representatives of the leadership of the Central Election Commission in connection with the upcoming holding of early parliamentary and elections for representatives in the European Parliament.

The President recalled the failure of the third exploratory mandate for the formation of a government by the 49th National Assembly, which requires that extraordinary parliamentary elections be held in the same time period, along with the European Parliament elections planned for this year. According to the head of state, if both types of elections were held on the same day, voter turnout, which decreases with each subsequent election, would be higher, and voters would not have to go to the polls twice within a short period of time. The President also emphasized that if the elections are held on the same date, public resources will be saved.

In connection with this, the head of state announced that the candidate for acting Prime Minister, Dimitar Glavchev, has informed about his readiness with the composition of the Council of Ministers and in fulfillment of Art. 99 and the new paragraph 5 of the Constitution, representatives of the parliamentaryly represented groups and Dimitar Glavchev have been invited for consultations in the presidential institution tomorrow, with which the time for the upcoming elections will be specified.

The head of state called on the representatives of the Central Election Commission to share whether they are ready to hold both types of elections on June 9, how many days are needed for the organization of the vote, as well as to express their position on the benefits and limitations of holding both types of elections in one day. The President noted that there are also proposals to hold early parliamentary elections a week after those for the European Parliament and asked if seven days would be enough for the procedures for preparing the software for the machines and sending them abroad.

CEC Chairperson Kamelia Neikova pointed out that if the elections are on different dates, there should be at least two or three weeks between them, as a shorter period would lead to the CEC being unable to fulfill its legal obligations. Neikova assured that the Commission will deal with the organization and conduct of elections for the European Parliament and early parliamentary elections on June 9, noting some of the related challenges, among which the greater workload of the members of the election commissions in two types of elections in one day, as well as the different deadlines for announcing the results of the national and European Parliament elections.