site.btaIf GERB Does Not Win Most Votes in First Round of Presidential Elections, Government Will Resign

If GERB Does Not Win Most Votes in First Round of Presidential Elections, Government Will Resign

Sofia, October 3 (BTA) - If the candidate nominated by the ruling GERB party fails to win the most votes in the first voting round of the November 6 presidential elections, the government will resign, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov told journalists on Monday. His statement came a day after GERB officially nominated Parliament Chair Tsetska Tsacheva for President of Bulgaria and Vice Admiral Plamen Manoushev for Vice President.

Borissov said: "The vote is in the first round. What follows later is a search for support. So if we do not win the first round, we will resign." According to him, GERB have always nominated those who are best prepared to run in elections, and Tsacheva, with her balanced positions, training and experience, is most suited to become President. "Our other potential candidates may have had higher ratings, but they are not better prepared for the post. The President's job is for someone who is sedate and settled, someone who can achieve balance and use all her or his experience to convince others," he explained.

He said the rival candidacy of former prime minister Plamen Oresharski is directly targeted against GERB. Borissov described Oresharski as a "decoy of the Bulgarian Socialist Party." "He is the most detestable person to GERB because of the damage he has inflicted on the nation," Borissov said.

The Prime Minister recalled the Kostinbrod excess ballots case of 2013, describing it as a large-scale campaign which used an absolute lie to rob GERB of 10 percentage points of its potential score in the parliamentary elections that year. "I remember what the Bulgarian Socialist Party did to us back then," he said.

Borissov praised the performance of incumbent President Rosen Plevneliev, who, he said, has received high marks from all Western countries. "His mistake was that, posing as a hawk, he largely worsened our relations with Russia. I have told him that both privately and publicly. But now, thanks to the goodwill of [Russian] President Putin, [Russian Prime Minister] Medvedev and myself, we have managed to sort things out, so the new President can take over in a calm situation vis-а-vis all important players: the United States, Europe, Russia, China, Turkey," Borissov said.