site.btaContinue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria Co-Floor Leader Iordanova: Fair Elections Impossible with Sarafov’s Prosecution Service

Fair elections are impossible with Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov’s prosecution service, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Floor Co-Leader Nadejda Iordanova said in a television interview on Thursday.

She added that the prosecution service’s preventive role in the election process is missing, which means there is no accountability and no justice.

“We are focused on fair elections without a Prosecutor General beholden to MRF Chair and MRF – New Beginning Floor Leader Delyan Peevski,” Iordanova said.

She noted that CC-DB had done everything possible to change election legislation in time. “Amendments to the Electoral Code were submitted more than a year ago, immediately after the last elections. Several amendment bills were passed on January 15, 2025. The missed chance for society to have a calm debate about the election rules is one of the sins of the previous governing majority,” Iordanova said.

“We insist on bringing back the 2021 model – 100% machine voting,” Iordanova added.

Borislav Sarafov has served as acting Prosecutor General since June 2023, after the Prosecutors Chamber/College of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) appointed him to the post; his continued tenure became controversial after Parliament passed Judiciary Act amendments in January 2025 limiting “acting” terms in top judicial posts to a maximum of six months and, in early October 2025, the Supreme Court of Cassation issued rulings challenging the legitimacy of an acting Prosecutor General in this context. In September 2025, the SJC’s Prosecutors Chamber nevertheless reconfirmed its earlier decision, arguing the six-month limit was inapplicable to Sarafov’s already-existing legal relationship (i.e., the amendments were not retroactive) and did not start proceedings to appoint a new acting chief prosecutor; political tensions have since escalated, with Yes, Bulgaria (part of CC-DB) calling for Sarafov’s dismissal on the grounds that fair elections are impossible under a prosecution service headed by him, while MRF – New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski said the question of Sarafov’s legality is for the SJC/Prosecutors College rather than Parliament.

Machine voting in Bulgaria became widespread in 2021, when predominantly (and in many sections, mandatory) machine voting was introduced as an anti-irregularities measure, but in December 2022 the Election Code was amended to restore paper ballots and manual counting, leaving machines, in practice, to produce voter-verified paper records that are then counted by hand. In the current pre-election debate, CC-DB are calling for a return to the “2021 model” of 100% machine voting and machine counting, arguing this produces “clean elections” and avoids manipulations; they also organised a 14 January 2026 protest in central Sofia under the slogan “For fair and just elections and 100% machine counting”, describing the current mixed system as one in which machines function merely as printers while the final tally is again done manually. GERB, for its part, has backed proposed changes introducing paper-ballot scanners as a way to reduce the “human factor” in counting, while warning against last-minute changes and saying the current parallel machine-and-paper regime should remain if scanners cannot be procured in time.