The Municipal Electoral Commission – Oryahovo (OIC) prematurely terminated the powers of the mayor of the village of Leskovets, Antoaneta Detelinova Tsvetkova, according to a decision published on the commission’s website. It states that within the one-month statutory period from taking the oath as mayor, Tsvetkova did not take the necessary actions to close the company and/or to terminate her commercial activity as a sole trader, as required by the Law on Local Self-Government and the local administration (ZMSMA). OIK-Oryahovo was informed about the fact that the mayor is registered in the Commercial Register as a sole trader through a report from a resident of the village of Leskovets, after which the commission decided to start an investigation.
According to the information published in the commission’s decision, Antoineta Tsvetkova filed an objection, in which she explained that due to objective circumstances related to her taking office and the need to familiarize herself with all current obligations, she failed to meet the legal deadline for submitting the necessary documents for deletion, BTA reported.
The objection also states that the company has been out of business since 2015 and has not received any income. This argument was not accepted by OIK-Oryahovo, since the fact that the company did not carry out commercial activity has no legal significance. “The existence of a commercial registration and failure to take action to terminate it within the period under Art. 41, para. 3 of the ZMSMA is a sufficient reason for the composition of the violation to be fulfilled, since until the moment of its deletion from the register, the merchant formally – legally, continues to be so,” the decision to terminate the mayor’s powers reads. It can be disputed before the Administrative Court – Vratsa.
This is the second such case in Vratsa district after the last local elections. In September, the OIC-Mezdra prematurely terminated the powers of the mayor of the village of Crete for the second time, as he had again failed to fulfill his obligations under Art. 41 para. 3 of the ZMSMA and had not taken any action to terminate his activity as a trader and manager of commercial companies.