ARF: There Is No Democracy Without Fair Elections

Petya Petrova, Konstantin Kostov

Hayri Sadakov of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms in Parliament, January 14, 2026 (BTA Photo/Vladimir Shokov)

Sofia,

14.01.2026 11:14

(BTA)

Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) Floor Leader Hayri Sadakov said Wednesday that Parliament must guarantee an honest and transparent electoral process through urgent changes to election legislation.

“There is no democracy without fair elections, no trust without transparency, and no stability without a protected and free vote,” said Hayri Sadakov in a declaration on behalf of the parliamentary group of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF).

He noted that parliament has the task of guaranteeing the fairness and transparency of the electoral process. According to ARF, without urgent and decisive changes to the Election Code and without a radical increase in election transparency, the crisis of trust in democracy in Bulgaria will continue to deepen.

ARF insists on the introduction of effective machine voting, electronic counting, and centralized reporting of results without human involvement, full transparency of the electoral process to rule out manipulation, pressure, and vote substitution, as well as clear, unambiguous rules that leave no room for interpretation on election night.

ARF supported the Zhelyazkov cabinet out of a statesmanlike understanding that Bulgaria needed stability, a budget, functioning institutions, and predictability in order to put an end to the cycle of early elections. However, according to Sadakov, the so-called “New Beginning” of Delyan Peevski voted against the Zhelyazkov cabinet, because this cabinet, with the support of ARF, was not under his control.

“Subsequently, this same political factor did everything possible to dominate the government from within, to replace the governing logic with one of pressure and dependencies, and to continue turning institutions into instruments of influence. This was not support for stability; it was yet another attempt to seize power through the back door,” Hayri Sadakov said, noting that citizens saw these truths and, through protests, demanded the unequivocal removal of Peevski from Bulgarian politics.

/DD/