site.btaPresident Radev: What Is Happening with Election Legislation Is Very Alarming

108 POLITICS - PRESIDENT - ELECTION CODE - COMMENT

President Radev: What Is
Happening with Election Legislation
Is Very Alarming


Souhindol, North Central Bulgaria, February 14 (BTA) - Approached by journalists here on Thursday, President Rumen Radev commented that what is happening with the election legislation is very alarming. In his words, it is evident the incumbent are not hiding that they are tempted to win by default through the amendments to the Election Code.

Radev was in Souhindol for the marking of the municipality's day and Vine-growers' Day.

"The Government's refusal to obey the law and elect a new membership of the Central Election Commission, the refusal to revise the electoral registers and remove the second protocol from district election commissions, the postponement of machine voting's introduction, the removal of distance voting as an option, the introduction of the mechanism whereby election commission decisions are taken by simple majority - all of these things lower the democratism and transparency of the election process," Radev argued.

Commenting on the possible link between the Skripal case in the UK and the 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev, Radev said that it is not normal for the Bulgarian Government to learn from foreign ambassadors about what is happening in Bulgaria. In his words, on Wednesday he was informed by the Prosecutor General, the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security head about the data on the case gathered thus far, and will not comment until the case is specified further.

Commenting on the recent news about wire transfers from Venezuelan state-owned oil company PdVSA to a Bulgarian bank, Radev said that each case that concerns the Bulgarians citizens' health and life as well as the safety of the Bulgarian banking system, is alarming because the latter is a main criterion for the country's entry in the euro zone's waiting room.

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