Bulgarian Parties Scrap Feuds, Unite for Fair Elections against Ex Rulers GERB

All major Bulgarian political parties, except former ruling GERB, have teamed up in an unprecedented move to organize a parallel ballot count in the upcoming May 12 general elections.

The decision unites traditional arch-rivals, and includes leftist and rightist, nationalist and liberal parties.

The parties have said that the move has been motivated not by a rapprochement among the parties, but out of a mutual concern for democracy and fear that elections might be rigged by the former ruling party.

"We all suspect that GERB are going to manipulate the vote to their benefit. That is why we had to scrap for a time our political differences and unite in the name of free and fair elections," said a representative.

The self-styled election fairness coalition includes the Bulgarian Socialist Party, liberals Movement for Rights and Freedoms, nationalists Ataka, rightists Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, as well as the new liberal Bulgaria for Citizens party.

They have hired a yet unnamed company from Austria to perform the logistics of the parallel counting, writes Mediapool.bg, with intentions to reveal the name of the firm and the terms of the contract at a later date.

The coalition will station its headquarters just outside of Bulgarian capital Sofia, and intends to announce its results independently of the official Central Electoral Commission.

The parallel counting will be facilitated by the regulatory requirement of making available copies of each election protocol at each polling station.

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