2024-02-10 10:04:22
The Pazardzhik Administrative Court rejected the appeal of the candidate mayor of Belovo municipality and current mayor Kostadin Varev against the decision of the local OIC for the election of engineer Stoiko Stefanov as mayor. The magistrates accept that all 5 contested minutes are completely regular and they do not reflect any special opinions or objections from a member of the commission or from any other person present during the election process or during the counting of the ballots .
The court accepts that the protocols, which reflect the election results in each election section, truly and accurately reflect the votes cast for the two candidates. During the review of the invalid ballots in five polling stations, no violations were reported.
Even assuming for a moment that the one contested ballot was in fact wrongly invalidated (and in fact cast for the appellant) it arguably did not change the outcome of the vote as the difference was 18 votes.
Based on the accepted protocols and the verification of the invalid ballots in five sections, the absence of violations in the election process was undoubtedly established, which leads to the conclusion that the appeal is unfounded.
The administrative court in Pazardzhik accepted that the decision of the OIC in Belovo was lawful and in the second round, Eng. Stoyko Stefanov was elected mayor. The decision is subject to appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court within 7 days.