The Administrative Court in Burgas will appoint new expert witnesses in the local elections case. This became clear a few minutes ago, reports a reporter of Iskra.bg, who followed the hearing today. The current 11 experts were heard, but it turned out that there is a serious discrepancy in their opinions. A part of them do not support the conclusion of the prepared expertise.
The parties have until 13 December to propose new expert witnesses. The current ones will not be remunerated for their work until then. The judge pointed out that it was advisable for the new experts to have a legal or economic background.
The proceedings in the Administrative Court today were fraught with tension. It is unprecedented for the seaside town and was filed on the complaint of Konstantin Bachyski of the „Middle European Class“.
As Iskra.bg reported today, an addendum to the expert report was submitted, signed by six of the experts. It claims that some of the protocols in the recount were not signed. But it was subsequently made clear that on the first two days the protocols were not initialled because they were not official documents. They were drafts, the results of which had been plotted on an already official Excel spreadsheet which had been filed with the court on 6 December.
The experts had worked through the day including yesterday and it was clear during the hearing that they were unanimous about the results of the examination. The ballots were counted several times and where there were any discrepancies, they were cleared.
The bags of ballot papers totalled 339 and some of the experts asked that they be opened, or at least those for which the minutes had not been signed. But public figure Stefan Petrov, who is also among the experts in the case, explained that the results were plotted in 339 separate Excel spreadsheets, then summarised in one overall table. He stressed that the protocols in question were only drafts. Another expert, Emil Peychev, argued the same.
For his part, the applicant, Mr Konstantin Bachiiski, stated that each of the expert witnesses was confident in their work. The expertise was carried out through many actions and by many expert witnesses and the processes were broken down, but each claimed to have done their work correctly. This means, in practice, that the results of the expertise are correct.
Another of the experts explained that in the last two days all the data had been re-checked. One person had looked at the results of the protocols and another at those that had been plotted in the official table. Where there were discrepancies, the bags had already been reopened.
For his part, Emil Peychev pointed out that there were three experts who worked on a computer and were not involved in the counting and in that sense there could always be doubts. Those who had counted, in turn, might have doubts about technical errors.
The defendant’s lawyers had claims and stated in court that the experts had not complied with the court’s instructions in preparing the expert report and the recount of the ballots from the local elections in Burgas.
After today’s hearing, the complainant’s lawyer Bogdan Yordanov commented that there was political pressure and asked how it could be explained that the 11 expert witnesses had been working together all along. Last night there was a pretext that the paper was running out and this morning the expert report should be prepared in the final version. But today there is already a dissenting opinion.
„There is nothing to be deceived about. Doubts have been expressed in the House that this opinion was not even prepared by members of the committee, but that this opinion was provided to them by interested parties from a political force,“ Yordanov added.
„The results that have come out of this expertise show that one of the political formations is likely to lose a mandate and I think there is a process of postponement and sabotaging the case.“
This is what the complainant Konstantin Bachiiski said in response to a question by Iskra.bg.
For his part, one of the experts, Emil Peychev, showed the journalists the protocols and pointed out that wherever they were unfolded everything was signed. The folder was not provided because the court did not request it. Moreover. Peychev announced that apparently some experts had received instructions during the night because the next day they wanted to check the results of specific sections again.
The chairwoman of the Municipal Election Commission, Fanny Semerdjieva, also stood in front of the journalists and commented that apparently, in her opinion, there was a violation in the forming of the final protocols and in the listing of the ballots. She categorically denied that there was pressure from political parties. The decision of the six with a dissenting opinion was taken late last night and she too was surprised today.
The next hearing in the case will be on January 5, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. at the Administrative Court in Burgas.
