Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, Spokesperson for the European Commission, has refused to comment on the May 12 elections in Bulgaria until the official results are clear.

"As far as I know, the election results are still preliminary because not all ballots have been counted yet, which means that the EC is still not in a position to comment on the vote until the counting process has been completed," she said.

Asked about the 350 000 illegally printed ballots discovered Saturday afternoon at a printing house owned by a municipal councilor from GERB, the EC Spokesperson said that the EC had been notified about the matter and the ongoing preliminary investigation.

Asked whether the EC believed that the May 12 elections in Bulgaria had been fair and transparent, Pia Hansen noted that the EC had not dispatched observers to monitor the process and expected the reports of the international observers before coming up with a statement on the matter.

"The EC has been informed about the potential irregularities at the elections but expects that they will be investigated by the Bulgarian authorities," she said.

Bulgarians went to the polls on May 12 to elect a new Parliament after the center-right government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov resigned on February 20 amid nationwide anti-poverty and corruption protests.

The election campaign was accompanied by serious scandal involving alleged unauthorized deployment of special surveillance equipment during Tsvetan Tsvetanov's term in office as Interior Minister.

Another scandal flared up on the eve of Election Day, as a team of prosecutors and officers of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) raided a Kostinbrod-based printing facility to discover 350 000 illegally printed ballot papers.

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