Thousands of Bulgarians rallied on March 12 in the capital Sofia, angered by the attempt by the prosecution, the Central Election Commission (CIK) and state IT company Informatsionno Obsluzhvane to interfere with a case concerning vote fraud in the October 27 snap general election.

At the end of February, the Constitutional Court ordered a full recount of votes from the October 27 snap general election, which is expected to reshuffle seats in parliament, with the nationalist, pro-Russian Greatness party expected to pass the 4% threshold and become the ninth formation in parliament.

After the court ordered the recount, the CEC passed on the data to Informatsionno Obsluzhvane, which was in charge of processing the election results.

However, the head of the Constitutional Court, Pavlina Panova, said on March 10 the case has been sabotaged by the prosecution, which had requested all the data. The prosecution has no jurisdiction in this case.

On March 12, the parliament also stepped up, approving a declaration criticising the work of the Constitutional Court and accusing it of a lack of transparency. The declaration, proposed by parliament speaker Natalia Kiselova, was backed by three of the parties from the ruling coalition – Gerb, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and There are Such People (ITN) – as well as DPS – New Beginning led by Magnitsky-sanctioned Delyan Peevski and one MP from the far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party.

Gerb and DPS – New Beginning are expected to be the biggest losers from the vote recount. 

Reformist pro-Western Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) strongly objected to the declaration, saying it was an unacceptable intervention in the work of the Constitutional Court, which is an independent institution.

“Who stole the election” and “CIK – Central Frad Commission” were among the most popular posters held by protesters chanting “Mafia out!”.

Rallies were held in several other big cities in Bulgaria but they were attended by a lower number of people.

“The statement of the chairman of the Constitutional Court, made for the national TV, should serve to wake up the nation. Instead of handing the results to the Constitutional Court, Informatsionno Obsluzhvane has handed them to the Sofia District Prosecution. Why they did this we shall hardly understand. Thus, the Constitutional Court cannot rule on the legality of the elections. Colleagues have already defined this as a coup and it is exactly that. Absolutely unacceptable interference by the uncontrolled prosecutor's office,” Adela Katchaunova, director of the legal programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) wrote on Facebook.

She added that this will further lower trust in elections in Bulgaria, and hypothetically could lead to the fall of the government. 

CC-DB MP Bozhidar Bozhanov said in an interview with bTV that with the annulment of the constitutional reform the Constitutional Court has proclaimed Bulgaria a “prosecutor’s republic”.

The annulled changes to the constitution would have made the chief prosecutor accountable for their actions and limit their currently unlimited power.

Bozhanov added that the prosecution was under the influence of Peevski and accused it of intervening in his favour.