site.btaVarna's Municipal Election Commission Postpones Decision on Whether to Remove Mayor Kotsev from Office

The Municipal Election Commission (MEC) in Varna on Sunday postponed its decision on whether the city's Mayor Blagomir Kotsev should be removed from office due to prolonged and unjustified absence from the workplace. With 20 votes in favour and 7 against, the Commission decided to request additional documents from the Municipality to provide more clarity on the facts and circumstances surrounding the case.

It convened to review three complaints filed against Kotsev. The most recent complaint was submitted on November 21.

“It is necessary to clarify the periods during which the Mayor was absent or was being substituted,” MEC Chair Velin Zhekov (nominated by GERB) told journalists. He added that a decision on whether he should be removed will be made once the Municipality provides the requested information and the Commission has discussed the matter.

“The composition of the MEC is permanent, most of the members are not party members but are nominated by political parties as professionals,” Zhekov stressed. He noted that the Commission should not comment on political statements nor engage in public communication with political parties.

The MEC Chair also said that the Commission must base its decision soundly so that it does not get overturned in court. “So far, we have strictly followed procedures, the law, and judicial practice, and we will continue to do so,” Zhekov assured.

Mayor Kotsev’s lawyer Marin Pantov was also present at the meeting. He pointed out that the provision of the Local Self-Government and Local Administration Act focuses on unjustified absence, not on the type of leave. In the Mayor’s case, two roles merge into one - employer and employee, the lawyer said. According to him, the issue is not what type of leave is used, but whether the absence is justified and whether detention in custody constitutes justified absence. The Local Self-Government and Local Administration Act contains an explicit provision for removing a mayor when a final conviction has entered into force, the lawyer noted.

During the MEC sitting, Varna residents took to the streets in protest in defence of the detained mayor. The protesters carried signs reading “Varna is not for sale” and “Blago is under arrest because he is mayor”. They chanted “Freedom”, “Peevski to prison”, and “Mafia out”.

Kotsev, elected mayor on the ticket of the opposition Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria in November 2023 - one of very few opposition mayors, including also that of Sofia, was arrested on July 8 following a tip-off for corruption by a failed public procurement tenderer. He was charged with participation in an organized crime group accused of engaging in abuse of office, bribery and money laundering. The court consistently rejected his applications for release from custody, and accepted the prosecutors' argument that he may interfere while the pre-trial proceedings were going on. Kotsev and four co-defendants were indicted on November 13 for conspiracy to commit bribery and coercion in order to obtain an economic benefit.

Kotsev's Continue the Change party insist that his arrest is part of a government campaign targeting the opposition. Large-scale protests in his support have been staged in Varna, Sofia and other major cities. The Renew Europe group in the European Parliament where Continue the Change is affiliated, sees Kotsev's extended detention as "an onslaught on democratic institutions and rule of law in Bulgaria".