site.btaPresident Iotova Defends Central Election Commission Allocation Method amid Dispute over Seat Distribution

President Iliana Iotova said on Tuesday that the presidential institution was applying the Election Code as adopted by Parliament, responding to objections raised during consultations with parliamentary parties on the allocation of seats in the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The comments came after representatives of several parliamentary groups disputed the methodology used to determine party quotas in the new composition of the CEC.

"When we started work on the rules, we worked with the text of the law as adopted. The law did not envisage a party holding an absolute majority," Iotova said.

Earlier in the consultations, Democratic Bulgaria Deputy Floor Leader Bozhidar Bozhanov argued that different legal interpretations could produce different outcomes, while mathematics offered a more precise answer. He said the presidential administration's interpretation effectively added provisions to the law and contradicted established CEC practice, under which a party that has reached the maximum representation allowed by law is excluded from subsequent calculations.

Iotova responded that the Hare-Niemeyer allocation system (largest remainder method) was not always particularly fair mathematically but stressed that the presidential institution was obliged to work within the existing legal framework.

"I do not see why Progressive Bulgaria should be removed from the equation and the same method applied a second time. In my view, that is illogical," she said.

She added that, regardless of hypothetical scenarios, the distribution of seats in Parliament had been determined by Bulgarian voters and that the allocation of CEC seats should be based on those results.

"The presidential institution has no quota in the CEC selection process. We have no personal interest in this distribution. We simply want the Election Code to be applied as adopted by Parliament," Iotova said.

The President also expressed support for proposals by the coalition Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) to reopen the Election Code and amend problematic provisions, including those concerning voting abroad.

Responding to Bozhanov's statement that CC-DB could challenge the presidential decree before the Constitutional Court if no changes were made, Iotova said that seeking a ruling from the court was the coalition's right.

"Please show respect for the people involved. Under the Election Code that you adopted, these consultations are mandatory," she told Bozhanov.

Iotova also urged participants to keep the discussion on an expert rather than political level and noted that the presidential administration had sought numerous legal opinions regarding the electoral rules.

In recent days, Bozhanov argued that the presidential decree contained an error in calculating party quotas. He said that the current situation was unprecedented because one party held more than half the seats in Parliament while the Election Code prevented it from holding more than half the seats on the CEC. According to him, correcting the methodology would change the distribution from two seats each for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and CC-DB to three seats for CC-DB and one for MRF. He called on the President to amend the decree accordingly.