"We saw recordings, mainly made by BNT, in which it is absolutely certain that manipulation of ballots is taking place - are they being added to, are they being altered, that is beyond doubt. However, there is no way to establish which ballots have been canceled in order to be declared invalid, and that is actually the big problem".
This was stated in "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" on BNT by constitutional judge Prof. Atanas Semov.
"The Constitutional Court works only with written evidence and, of course, expert opinions. The video recording is not evidence either in the case before the Constitutional Court or in general under the Election Code. The Election Code practically does not give any legal significance to the video broadcast on election day and the recording of the vote count", said Semov.
Therefore, the court has agreed to examine 2,200 polling stations in which violations can be established with valid evidence.
"No one can know what would have happened if the legality of the elections in all polling stations had been examined. The Constitutional Court is a jurisdiction that works on the basis of requests that can only be verified if they contain allegations that can be established with evidentiary means," said Semov.
The missing ballots are not 780, but much more - from hundreds of polling stations, said Prof. Semov and recalled that this is not the first time the Constitutional Court has "reset" sections, after establishing a lack of ballots: "In 2010, the Constitutional Court declared a zero result in dozens of sections in Turkey because it was practically impossible for 2,000 people to vote on one election day. It was absolutely clear that manipulations had been carried out. Then the Constitutional Court annulled one mandate, but on the basis of multiple sections".
Semov explained that the demands for a complete annulment of the elections were not supported by arguments that are subject to verification. He cited examples from the complaints: "Violation in the formation of the polling stations and the compilation of the voter lists" - first, the Constitutional Court cannot establish this, second - there is an absolutely clear procedure prescribed in the Electoral Code for challenging the decisions of mayors to appoint the SIC. This procedure has not been used by the same formations that are appealing to the Constitutional Court.
Replacing members is a huge problem. We are talking about tens of thousands of members replaced at the last minute with untrained people. However, it cannot be established with evidence in any way how this replacement affects the vote, the conduct of the elections and the reporting of the results and cannot be an evidentiary request before the Constitutional Court".
In a number of cases, crimes have been committed against the electoral rights of citizens, but the prosecutor's office has not taken action so far, said Atanas Semov.
"After the Constitutional Court referred it to it yesterday with 80 pages of evidence, checks, conclusions - the prosecutor's office must step into its function and establish who and how manipulated the ballots".
This is perhaps the most difficult case and the boldest decision of the Constitutional Court in its 34-year history, noted Prof. Semov.
"In Europe, it is a precedent to disqualify 16 members of parliament - and this decision was adopted unanimously by all 11 judges, there is not even a single dissenting opinion".