site.btaGERB to Stand Independently in Local Elections

GERB to Stand Independently in Local Elections

Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, March 14 (BTA) - The Executive
Committee of the ruling GERB party decided that the party will
stand independently in the forthcoming local elections, GERB's
Floor Leader and Deputy Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov told a
national meeting of the party in Plovdiv, as quoted by the GERB
press office on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by municipality mayors, MPs, regional
GERB coordinators and government ministers from the GERB quota.

According to Tsvetanov, GERB's candidates in the elections
should be proposed by the party's grassroots chapters, not by
its headquarters.

Even though some strain is possible between GERB and its
partners in the ruling coalition during the local elections, the
 party should keep up the normal communication with its allies
after the ballot, he said. "GERB will maintain the political
dialogue at the national level in order to make sure that the
government is stable," he said.

The forthcoming elections should be conducted according to the
rules of the current Election Code, although they are not
perfect, because if the Code is amended now, GERB will be
accused of making last-minute changes and this will cause
tension, Tsvetanov said.

He cited Plovdiv as a model of successful policies at the local
level, with Mayor Ivan Totev (GERB) having done a lot for the
city's European development.