Bulgarian President Reiterates Call for Formation of New Cabinet

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has once again urged all political parties in the country’s new Parliament to put efforts into forming a government.

Plevneliev has thus indirectly clashed with former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who declared on Thursday that he would seek the cancelation of last week’s general election in the country.

“I am convinced that Bulgaria needs a government and a Parliament – and I am convinced that the political parties will put efforts into meeting the people’s wish to have a responsible government and a responsible Parliament,” the President declared.

He said he did not believe there was an insurmountable stalemate in Parliament.

On Thursday, Borisov surprisingly announced that his center-right GERB party would appeal to the constitutional court and seek the cancellation of the election due to “a gross violation of the law in the day before the vote."

Borisov claimed that his party's chances had been damaged by allegations that it was about to commit voting fraud.  He referred to the overnight raid of the Bulgarian prosecuting authority and the State Agency for National Security at a printing house on the eve of Election Day, during which a total of 350 000 illegal ballots were seized.

The printing house is owned by a GERB municipal councilor, which prompted opposition parties to accuse GERB of an attempted voting fraud. The parties thus allegedly broke the mandatory pre-election silence on Saturday.

Final election results leave GERB narrowly ahead with 30.5%.

Its left-wing rival, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, won 26.6% of the vote.

Only two other parties passed the 4% threshold needed to enter parliament - the ethnic Turkish liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms  won 11.3% and the ultra-nationalist Ataka took 7.3%.

BSP, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Ataka have all declared that they would not negotiate with GERB.

Plevneliev will hold his first post-election talks with with the four parties on Friday.

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