The campaign committee of presidential candidate Andrey Gyurov and his running mate Georgi Kandev has asked the Central Election Commission (CEC) to act on what it calls campaigning for Iliana Yotova through the Council of Ministers' official channels, the committee said.
Earlier today, Bozhidar Bozhanov, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria, wrote on Facebook that the government had broken the Electoral Code by joining in campaigning through its official channels. He called on the CEC to rule at once.
The background: Bozhanov: government violated the Election Code with pre-election campaigning
The trigger is a statement by prime minister Rumen Radev to journalists on 26 October, at the opening of the Sofia Economic Forum. It was Radev's first comment on the results of the first round of the presidential election. He said the vote is a fight for life and death for the "Sglobka" backers, and there is no room for complacency. He urged people to vote for Yotova on Sunday "so that Bulgaria is in safe hands", and to send the Sglobka "into oblivion". The committee says the remarks also include accusations against Gyurov.
The committee names three official channels that carried the same content: the Government Information Service, the gov.bg website and the institution's official Facebook page. The government press office also sent out a press release with the statement, the committee says.
It sees two separate breaches of the Electoral Code. Article 182, paragraph 1 bans campaigning through a state institution. Article 168, paragraph 3 bans free use of public administrative resources for a campaign. The committee says the Council of Ministers has become Iliana Yotova's press centre, and calls this an unacceptable abuse of public resources: state channels, civil servants and budget money working for one candidate.
"The state is not a campaign headquarters," the committee's press release says.
"We are alerting the CEC: the posts must come down at once, and those responsible must be punished," the committee quotes presidential candidate Andrey Gyurov as saying.
The committee makes six requests to the CEC. It asks the commission to establish the breaches, to order the content removed at once and such campaigning through government channels to stop, and to record what was posted. It also asks the CEC to find out which officials wrote, approved and published it, and on whose orders. The committee wants the CEC to start drawing up reports of administrative offences against Rumen Radev and the officials found responsible, and to send the material to the National Audit Office for review within its powers.
The committee insists the complaint be considered within the 24-hour deadline set by law.