site.btaUPDATED Vice President Iotova Not Optimistic about Formation of Government

"I am not optimistic that there will be a government," Vice President Iliana Iotova said after voting at the John Atanasov Vocational School of Electronics here on Sunday. She opted for machine voting.

“I’m definitely not optimistic. Especially given the behaviour of party leaders in today’s election day, of those who were in power until recently, but emotions are running high today and I hope that reason will prevail,” she said.

Iotova expressed hope that there will be no snap elections for some time at least.  

"Let's not be bleak, but let's see how today will end," Iotova said and expressed hope that with her vote "there will be no more humiliating assemblages", referring to the previous powerholders, consisting of GERB-UDF, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. She said she voted, hoping that the next government will be based on clear relationships between the political parties, a clear programme on what must be done in the coming months, because there is much do be accomplished.

“Let’s not forget that today, we’re also voting for European Parliament. I voted for people who are well-prepared, who know what the Bulgarian interests are after 17 years [of Bulgaria being in the EU].

There were many alerts about influence trading and vote buying. There’s something incomplete here, as we did not find out in which party’s favour the vote-buying attempts were and how this would possibly influence the negotiations and the final results,” she said.