SOFIA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Bulgaria's Constitutional Court on Thursday declared that the election of 16 members of the 240-seat parliament on Oct. 27, 2024, was illegal.
According to the court's decision published on its website, all eight current parliamentary groups are affected, including GERB - UDF (three), "There Is Such People" (three seats), and MECH (three), which currently have 69 seats, 18 seats, and 12 seats, respectively.
The ruling also impacts the 35-seat parliamentary Group of REVIVAL (two seats), the 30-seat group of the "Movement for Rights and Freedoms -- New Beginning" (two), the 37-member "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" (one), the 20-member "BSP - United Left" (one), and the 19-member "Democracy, Rights and Freedoms" (one).
Meanwhile, the Greatness Party is set to enter the parliament following the court's decision. The party narrowly missed the 4 percent threshold by just 21 votes when the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the results on Oct. 30, 2024. However, after a recount, the Greatness party now surpasses the threshold by 96 votes.
At the end of February, the Constitutional Court ordered the CEC to recount the votes from the parliamentary elections, following an investigation into alleged election irregularities launched in early November last year.
An expert review of ballots from 1,768 of the country's 12,920 polling stations revealed discrepancies in 46.75 percent of the cases, where changes were found in the number of votes allocated to candidate lists and other inconsistencies, the court said.
The CEC has been instructed to determine the election results, including the distribution of mandates and the names of the elected members of parliament, in accordance with the court's ruling. ■