site.btaBulgaria Without Censorship Chairman Barekov: "LIDER Took Unfair Advantage of Us to Cash In on their Corporate Vote"

Bulgaria Without Censorship Chairman Barekov: "LIDER Took Unfair Advantage of Us to Cash In on their Corporate Vote"


Sofia, January 26 (BTA) - "I admit this as my personal mistake:
I was misled and did not show enough political foresight despite
by experience, and I allowed our party to coalesce with a
corporate entity like the LIDER Political Party, which has come
to a number of political failures," Bulgaria Without Censorship
(BwC) Party leader and MEP Nikolay Barekov commented, quoted by
his party in a press release on Monday.

The former journalist called on the BwC chapters countrywide to
start negotiations with all democratic parties which are willing
to enter the local elections this coming autumn. "I believe
that people who entered Parliament for the first time thanks to
us took unfair advantage of my naive desire to fight the status
quo and of our high ratings in order to cash in on their
corporate vote, which runs counter to the democratic process
practice," he pointed out.

He argues that the future of the BwC Party lies in "stand-alone
participation in this country's political life and support for
all parties that rely on popular rather than corporate vote." In
Barekov's opinion, the attempts of certain entities to attack
the party he leads "and to steal chapters, buying piecemeal" are
"disgraceful and inadmissible in a democracy that is a EU
Member State."

Last year BwC formed a coalition of the same name with the LIDER
Party, the Agrarian Popular Union and the Gergiovden Movement
that won 14 seats in the October 5 early parliamentary
elections. The MPs (six from BwC, five from LIDER, two from the
Agrarian Popular Union, and former TV anchor Rossen Petrov) set
up a parliamentary group called Bulgarian Democratic Centre
(BDC). On December 22, Barekov resigned as Chairman of the BwC
Coalition Council, stating that he was also withdrawing his
unconditional support for the BDC because three LIDER MPs had
voted in favour of controversial amendments to the Social
Insurance Code moved by GERB. On December 29, four BwC MPs quit
the party but remained in the BDC Parliamentary Group, citing
Barekov's "inconsistent conduct" and "pressure and lack of a
clear distinction between separate political levels and partner
relationships."

The LIDER Party is associated with businessman Hristo Kovachki,
who owns a number of energy operations, including the Bobov Dol,
Beli Breg and Choukourovo coal mines and the Bobov Dol, Brikel
and Maritza 3 thermal power plants. There are widespread
allegations that LIDER enlists its voter support through unfair
practices.