There is nothing more stupid than recounting ballots from a large electoral base, such as the national elections. A fundamental right in electoral practice is: never recount ballots. The number of times you have counted them is the number of times you have been mired in something terrible.
This was told to FOCUS by the former long-time member of the CEC and director of electoral analysis and forecasts at "Gallup International Balkan" Prof. Mikhail Konstantinov.
"The first is that the more times you count, the more times you get a different result. And the second reason is that such materials, in particular ballots, are not stored under any reasonable conditions. They are stored in the basements of municipalities, where the cleaners keep their buckets and rags. Anyone can do whatever they want with them or destroy them without wanting to. That's why you never count large databases. Now the new Constitutional Court has learned it the hard way.“
According to him, ballots are counted only and exclusively in the election sections, where observers and representatives of parties from all political forces can be present, as well as citizens, journalists, etc., who can participate in the counting.
"There is no greater guarantee for the fairness of the election process. First, that the members of the section commissions are from different political forces. And second, that all kinds of people can be present at the election process.“
According to Prof. Konstantinov, an exceptionally progressive election practice exists in Spain and it would be good to introduce it in our country too – after the vote is counted there, the ballots are burned, which prevents the so-called "Florida Syndrome" with multiple counts with different final results.
The recount saga in our country will end only when the current parliament is dissolved and the case loses its meaning. "This action was extremely harmful. The few remnants of trust in the electoral process were easily destroyed by the big bosses in the Constitutional Court. Let this be a lesson to them, to the next formations of the Constitutional Court, and to all Bulgarians: never recount large bases of ballots.“