site.btaUPDATED CC-DB Will Not Support Cabinet with GERB-UDF's Mandate or Participation

CC-DB Will Not Support Cabinet with GERB-UDF's Mandate or Participation
CC-DB Will Not Support Cabinet with GERB-UDF's Mandate or Participation
From left: Atanas Atanassov, Assen Vassilev, Kiril Petkov and Hristo Ivanov at the CC-DB news conference, April 7, 2023 (BTA Photo)

All parties of the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) coalition have decided it will not back a cabinet formed on the mandate of GERB-UDF or with its participation, the four co-leaders of CC-DB told a news conference Friday.

CC-DB won 64 seats in the 240-seat National Assembly in the April 2 parliamentary elections, the fifth in two years.

Election winner GERB-UDF has 69 seats.

CC co-leader Assen Vassilev deplored that once again, only about 40% of Bulgarians with the franchise voted. He said the coalition failed to convince enough people that the European course of development is worth going to the polls.

He noted serious problems of the election process: over 45,000 invalid ballots, compared to fewer than 9,000 on October 2, 2022, a discrepancy in 17% of voting sections between the votes registered by voting machines and those entered in the section commissions' tally sheets, and tally sheet corrections. Also, the ballot count was not livestreamed in 2,600 out of 11,818 sections. Worse still, there was no video monitoring at all in 303 sections, while 225 voting sections had interruptions in video monitoring and the machine-voting ballots and paper ballots were not shown during the count. Video monitoring was available in 172 out of 700 most high-risk voting sections.

The coalition listed all these irregularities in a letter to the Central Election Commission on Thursday, Vassilev said, adding that the election result will most likely remain unchanged despite the irregularities.

He argued that Bulgaria has a systemic problem with the conduct of elections and the reporting of election results. "If we want to be a normal European country, we must learn to hold free and fair elections," he said.

CC co-leader Kiril Petkov thanked the 621,069 people who cast their vote for CC-DB.

"Although our campaign was very positive, free of attacks, and future-oriented, seeing that 60% of Bulgarians decided not to vote we must obviously work more," he commented.

He said the decision not to support a GERB cabinet formed on the first mandate is based on values: "The Bulgarians should be sure that when they vote for us, we will deliver on our promise."

Petkov was adamant that Parliament must adopt a 2023 budget as quickly as possible.

DB co-leader Hristo Ivanov said the CC-DB coalition failed to reach its full potential in the elections and affirmed the common position regarding the first mandate, which will go to GERB-UDF.

He said that the election results proved that the CC-DB coalition has a potential and its members will work to develop and build on it.

"From now on, we will deliver on the most important promise we made - to reinstate the parliamentary republic and parliamentary governance in Bulgaria in a way that can realize our priorities in deed, not in word," Ivanov said.

He added that none of those goals can be achieved without a deep, thorough judicial reform.

DB co-leader Atanas Atanassov, leader of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) which hosted the news conference, said the coalition cannot support a cabinet nominated by GERB leader Boyko Borissov.

Atanassov said DSB held an in-depth discussion on the elections and its future actions on Tuesday and, while being aware that about 80% of Bulgarians want to see a regular government, the party's national leadership cannot back one named by Borissov.

"We are a coalition of political parties, we are not a rehabilitation authority, nor are we an amnesty authority," the DSB leader said. "In the next Parliament, we will deliver on all promises we made during the election campaign," Atanassov said, adding that one of the bills they will propose will be about a radical change in the way the security services are run.

Commenting on Borissov's statement that a regular government could include ministers of the caretaker cabinets appointed by President Rumen Radev, Atanassov suggested that when there is a regular government, the President "had better go back to the presidential institution".

/DD/

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By 12:55 on 29.03.2024 Today`s news

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