Deadlock in Bulgaria's Govt over Electoral Code Veto

The parties forming or backing Bulgaria's minority government have failed to come up with a joint position on the veto imposed by President Rosen Plevneliev on amendments to the election rules.

Plevneliev returned some of the changes to Parliament earlier in May, arguing they were unconstitutional by preventing some Bulgarian nationals living abroad to cast ballots.

Among amendments to the Electoral Code approved by MPs was a cap on the number of polling stations abroad, with nationalist Patriotic Front arguing the move would curb uncontrolled vote from Turkey.

On Tuesday, politicians from coalition partners GERB and Reformist Bloc and the leaders of PF, which does not have ministers in the cabinet but supports it, met to discuss their positions as Parliament is to hold a vote on the President's veto.

As their meeting was beginning, Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee recommended that MPs should support the veto in the plenary vote.

But local media outlets quote Tsvetan Tsvetanov, the head of senior coalition partner GERB's faction in Parliament, as saying his party was confident in possibilities to form a parliamentary majority.

The PF threatens to withdraw support for the minority cabinet if no restrictions to the number of polling stations outside of Bulgaria are introduced.

News website Dnevnik.bg quotes unofficial sources as saying the Patriotic Front was ready to backtrack on some of the amendments, but only if the veto itself is rejected.

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