site.btaPresident's Secretary for Legal Affairs Explains Allocation of CEC Member Seats

The proportion between the parties and coalitions represented in Parliament is maintained through the greatest remainder method, Prof. Ivelina Dimitrova, Secretary for Legal Affairs at the President's Administration, said on Tuesday during President Iliana Iotova's consultations with the parliamentary parties and coalitions on the composition of the Central Election Commission (CEC). The rule is that when parties have equal remainders, priority is given to the smaller parliamentary group, she added.

Election Code, Article 46 (8) reads: Upon the appointment of the members of the Central Election Commission, the proportion of the parties and coalitions represented in Parliament shall be retained, using the greatest remainder method. Any parties and coalitions with equal remainders shall fill the vacant positions, starting from the smallest party or coalition represented in Parliament. The representatives of a single party or coalition may not have a majority in the Commission.

Seats in the CEC are allocated among the parliamentary parties and coalitions according to the number of seats they hold in the 52nd National Assembly and the number of seats in the CEC. Accordingly, Progressive Bulgaria, on the basis of its 131 seats, has a quota of 8.1875; GERB-UDF, with 39 seats, has a quota of 2.4375; Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), with 37 seats, has a quota of 2.3125; the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), with 21 seats, has a quota of 1.3125; and Vazrazhdane, with 12 seats, has a quota of 0.75.

Based on the whole-number allocations, 13 seats are distributed. The rule of the greatest remainder is applied to allocate the remaining two seats. As a result, one seat goes to Vazrazhdane as the party with the greatest remainder, and one to GERB-UDF, which has the second-greatest remainder.

Progressive Bulgaria would have a majority of eight members in the CEC, while the maximum permissible number is seven. That seat must therefore be allocated to one of the remaining parliamentary groups - MRF or CC-DB, which have equal remainders. In such a case, the seat goes to the smaller parliamentary group, Dimitrova said.