site.btaUPDATED Socialist Party Will Run in October 20 Elections with Coalition, Interim Leader Says

The National Council decided that the Bulgarian Socialist Party will contest the upcoming general elections in a coalition format, said interim leader Atanas Zafirov at a news briefing after a meeting of the party’s National Council on Saturday.

The name of the coalition will determine the type and the messages of the campaign. So far, 15 parties have declared their readiness to join, and according to Zafirov they could reach 20.

Zafirov said that BSP’s Executive Bureau had been mandated to continue talks on a name for the future coalition and the way it will be formed.

Zafirov said that the meeting adopted criteria and procedures for nomination of MP candidates. By September 6 municipal chapters should hold nomination meetings and by September 8 the party’s regional councils should submit the draft lists which will be approved by the party’s National Council.

The National Council mandated Zafirov to sign the coalition agreement, as well as to sign and submit to the Central Election Commission and the respective district election commissions the documents for registration of the BSP, as well as the lists of candidates for MPs.

Under a previous decision of the National Council, the process of reviewing the sanctions in the party and their partial repeal has begun. There was a lot of intrigue and speculation that people would be expelled at Saturday's National Council meeting, Zafirov said.

Pеnalties will be imposed. In a declaration the National Council of the BSP condemned the non-implementation and open sabotage of the decisions by members of the national leadership, Atanas Zafirov said.

He said that with some of her actions, ex-leader Korneliya Ninova went against the decisions of the collective bodies and thus creating grounds for different interpretations. Some of these actions look like sabotage, Zafirov said, adding that the behaviour of "some of Ninova's associates shows the same".