Bulgarian Socialists Seek to Make Sofia Vote Void over 'Numerous Violations'

Socialist MP Anton Kutev has accused GERB of attempting to influence the outcome of the October 23 elections in Sofia.Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will seek a cancellation of the vote in the capital due to the chaos surrounding the submission of election papers with the Sofia municipal electoral commission and the presence of two GERB MPs, socialist MP Anton Kutev said.

The left-wing party's headquarters in Sofia confirmed that a cancellation of the vote would be requested once the official results come out and the motives for the step would be presented on Thursday

In his Wednesday statement, Kutev stressed that Stanislav Ivanov, an MP from the center-right ruling GERB party, had entered the municipal electoral commission's premises to try to exert influence, despite the attempts of the political formation to hide the true reasons for the visit of their two representatives.

"A political formation is trying to unabashedly trample on all sorts of laws in the country and I can imagine what will happen if it assumes control of all powers," Kutev declared.

BSP MP Dimcho Mihalevski asked if it was the police, Tsvetan Tsvetanov,. Boyko Borisov or GERB that was staging the elections.

Mihalevski complained about "unprecedented pressure" exerted on BSP's party-affiliated obsevers in the southern Bulgarian town of Zlatograd by the police and by GERB's mayoral candidate Miroslav Yanchev and Deputy District Governor of Smolyan Nedyalko Slavov.

By end-Tuesday, a total of 16 party-affiliated obsevers had already been summoned for questioning on the case, the socialist announced.

He also noted that the coalition including BSP had come 80 votes short of a victory at the first round in Zlatograd's local elections.

At the same time, former secret agent and current presidential candidate Alexei Petrov and his running mate Nikolay Georgiev also called for a cancellation of the vote, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agnecy (BTA) reported.

Petrov and Georgiev addressed the competent authorities with a petition to declare the voting void due to the multiple and gross violations of election rules.

The two suggested that a special independent body should be formed with the participation of civil organizations and local and international observers to draw up an overall estimation of the October 23 elections and the results.

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