site.btaAppeals against Registration of Yes, Bulgaria Party Can Stop it from Running in Parliamentary Elections

Appeals against Registration of  Yes, Bulgaria Party Can Stop it from Running in Parliamentary Elections

Sofia, February 6 (BTA) - Hristo Ivanov, leader of the Yes, Bulgaria Movement party, Monday confirmed media reports about appeals filed against the party's registration.

Ivanov, campaign manager Antoaneta Tsoneva and Executive Council member Ivo Mirchev talked to the press at a filling station because news of the appeals found them driving to a meeting with sympathizers in Gabrovo, Central Bulgaria.

Footage of the news conference was released on the social media.

Three appeals have been filed. Two of them were signed with bogus names, without personal ID numbers and a return address, and no court fees paid. The third complaint was filed by a person who tried to disrupt the constituent meeting and left without becoming a founder of the party, said Ivanov.

Monday is the deadline for appeals against the party's registration, which can be lodged only by the prosecution service. Filed just 48 hours before the deadline for registration for the elections, the appeals apparently aim to stop Yes, Bulgaria from running in the March 26 parliamentary elections on its own, Ivanov said. There is the option of running as part of a coalition.

Now the Supreme Court of Cassation will have to consider the appeals and turn them down as inadmissible. However, this can only happen after the deadline for registration for the elections.

Ivanov said this would not work out. He said he was going back to Sofia and the leadership would decide how to react.

Antoaneta Tsoneva confirmed the papers for the party's registration were accurate.

Yes, Bulgaria Movement was founded on January 7 with Hristo Ivanov as its Chairman. Ivanov was justice minister of Boyko Borissov's cabinet until December 2015 when he resigned after Parliament refused to support constitutional changes he saw as central to a judicial reform package proposed by his team.