site.btaGeorgi Purvanov Re-elected ABV Chairman

Georgi Purvanov Re-elected ABV Chairman

Sofia, April 26 (BTA) - Georgi Purvanov was re-elected leader of
the ABV party, said Veselka Vacheva who chaired the national
commission on the election of the party leader. She was speaking
at the beginning of the party's national conference on Sunday.


Purvanov resigned as leader in late February after the ABV
parliamentary group backed the ratification of an 8 billion
euro foreign debt agreement.

The other nominees in Saturday's elections were Steliyan
Stefanov, head of the party's municipal branch in Rousse, and
Pazardjik Regional Governor Trendafil Velichkov.

Purvanov was backed by 10,748 members (93.57 per cent of the
members' votes) and 14,745 sympathizers (92.24 per cent of the
sympathizers' votes). Stefanov won the votes of 398 members and
607 sympathizers, and Velichkov was backed by 314 members and
390 sympathizers.

Of the 27,471 participants in the direct election, 11,486 voted
as members and 15,985 as sympathizers. Voting took place in 215
municipalities with 1,613 mobile and 360 stationary sections.
Through electronic voting Bulgarians voted in Austria, Britain,
Indonesia, Macedonia, Russia and Turkey.

Purvanov said the result came as a pleasant surprise as there
had not been any election campaign. "Let's not forget that our
party is just one year old," he said.

He said the party should demand the cabinet's overhaul or its
authority would be eroded. ABV holds the cabinet's effectiveness
as its main criterion. The activity of the ministers of foreign
affairs and defence not only undermines the influence of the
government coalition, it is bad for Bulgaria and its people in
the long term, according to Purvanov. The energy sector is
helplessly registering losses, which will lead to a collapse,
the Economy Ministry is doing nothing but purges, and odd things
are taking place in education. "With so many weak spots in the
cabinet we cannot say the government is strong," said Purvanov.
"Six months into the government's term we can say that ABV has
largely exhausted its potential for compromise in the
coalition."

Purvanov noted that ABV had been a successful social corrective
for six months. "We should formulate and stand up for
alternative policies. ABV should ask its partner GERB, which
formed the cabinet, if social reforms - above all pension reform
- will be launched, or they will fall victim to pre-election
games, and if decisive changes will take place in the energy
sector, for which ABV proposed an action plan."

Purvanov also said ABV's future and the future of the entire
Left depended on the local elections this autumn.

He commented that Bulgaria had proved its solidarity with NATO
but it should hold on to its right to a specific position on
developments near its border and its relations with Russia and
other Eastern partners. Bulgaria must not become a source of a
hostile attitude towards Russia and should hold a referendum on
the lifting of sanctions against it, Purvanov stated.