site.btaMedia Review: November 4

The obstacles to government formation after the October 27 parliamentary elections, calls for election annulment, and the US presidential election are some of the highlights of Monday's news media.

HOME SCENE

Trud leads with a story headlined "Election Annulment Seems Increasingly Likely", which says three parties want the elections voided fully or partly, claiming that the results were rigged. Velichie, which failed to cross the 4% electoral threshold after winning 3.999% of the votes, and MECh, the smallest of eight groups in Parliament, want the elections annulled in their entirety, while There Is Such a People have called for voiding of the results in voting sections with proven manipulations. Also, President Rumen Radev asked the caretaker government last week if some of the parties won seats using vote buying and racketeering. For her part, Central Election Commission Chairperson Kameliya Neykova admitted that video footage leaves one with the impression that some of the section commissions broke the rules.

Using AI analysis, the Democratic Center NGO found discrepancies in the votes entered in the tally sheets and those recorded by the flash memories of the voting machines in 22.42% of the voting sections. The deviation ranged between 0.24% and 0.41% of all valid votes per candidate/list. The NGO's Blagovest Kirilov concluded that some parties won between 6,000 and 10,000 fewer or more votes. Velichie may or may not enter Parliament on these grounds; either way, the real results will be different.

Lawyer Petar Slavov told Trud that nobody doubts anymore that violations influenced the election results. Former Constitutional Court judge Emilia Drumeva said elections have never been annulled in Bulgaria, although the Constitutional Court was petitioned once and it said there were no grounds to grant the request.

Telegraph.bg quotes Assistant Professor Orlin Kolev as saying that vote buying is not grounds to annul elections.

Kalin Slavov from Transparency International Bulgaria told the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) that vote buying is already out-of-date as it has been replaced by buying entire election commissions in recent years. Realistically, bought votes account for 4-5% of the total in the latest elections. Under the Penal Code, the members of section election commissions are officials and face up to five years in prison if they commit crimes against the citizens' political rights. He suggested that vote rigging could be curbed by posting Interior Ministry officers and magistrates to monitor elections.

Interviewed by BNR, Teodor Slavev of the Bulgarian Institute for Legal Initiatives said the next elections may come before the Constitutional Court's ruling if vote rigging is referred to it. The Election Code gives the Constitutional Court two months to issue a ruling. The expert talked about exceptional arrogance in the vote rigging practices observed in the latest elections. What is new now is that people have shown these practices will not be tolerated. Commenting on the lineup of the Constitutional Court, Slavev said the good news is that the President and the judiciary are functioning despite the grave political crisis. The President and the judiciary appointed three Constitutional Court judges between them, and now the Court has 11 members, with Parliament yet to elect its representative.

Interviewed by Trud, psychiatrist Lubomir Kanov talks about the roles of the parties in the possible government-forming scenarios. Movement for Rights and Freedoms honorary chairman Ahmed Dogan seems inclined to see the faction loyal to him enter a coalition government with GERB-UDF and Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), whereas he himself will not be actively involved in Parliament. This would help his possible coalition partners put behind statements that they would never rule with Dogan. Delyan Peevski, one of the two MRF chairmen, seems unaffected by the demonization of politicians, despite nearly two-year protests against him. Kanov also talks about "pseudo-patriotic parties" such as Vazrazhdane, Velichie and MECh, whose patriotism is identical with love for Russia. They are loyalist Russophiles, backed by vested interests and probably subsidized by the fifth column of Putin's Russia. Velichie failed to enter Parliament due to an "extremely accurate vote count", which is impossible in Bulgaria, but even if that party had won seats, it would not make any difference because it is non-descript.  MECh will play a destructive and provocative role, with leader Radostin Vassilev's extremely arrogant claim to the post of Interior Minister and to unbridled powers. Kanev also talks about "unprincipled gaffes" made by CC-DB. As to GERB leader Boyko Borissov, he may opt for the role of a magnanimous, all-forgiving statesman, and form a government, playing up to Sofia's Western allies. Kanev expects that Bulgaria will hold snap elections next spring.

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Politicians and analysts commented on alleged testimony given by former Customs Agency director Petya Bankova.

Mediapool.bg covers CC-DB's response to Bankova's allegations. She testified in a statement to an investigating inspector that CC-DB co-leader Assen Vassilev, in his capacity as finance minister, had insisted that a specific company, Smiths Detection, should supply scanners to the Customs Agency. Bankova was arrested on charges of coercion and participation in an organized crime group for smuggling in April and was released from custody in mid-October on BGN 10,000 bail.

Interviewed by BNR on Sunday, Vassilev refuted three key points of Bankova's alleged testimony: While he was a minister of the Nikolay Denkov cabinet, the Supreme Administrative Court terminated a public procurement procedure for the scanners and any further developments took place under the caretaker cabinet. The helicopters for the emergency medical service were purchased by the Health Ministry and the Finance and Transport Ministries were not involved directly. Regarding the acquisition of trains for the Bulgarian State Railways, the European Commission did not approve of possible tenders by Chinese companies and there were no Chinese offers. As to an allegation that he had halted tip-offs about smuggling, Vassilev recalled that the Customs Agency had intercepted record large volumes of contraband while Bankova was its director and that any tip-offs were handled by the State Agency for National Security and the Directorate General for Combating Organized Crime, and were not addressed to the finance minister.

The other CC-DB leader, Kiril Petkov, said on Facebook that GERB members linked to MRF leader Delyan Peevski were giving publicity to "Bankova's 'testimony' which may have been forced out of her after six months in unlawful custody". Petkov claimed that the allegations were intended to deflect attention from the choice facing the parliamentary forces: Bulgaria or Peevski.

Bankova's lawyer Adelina Natina told the Bulgarian National Television on Sunday that the former official had testified of her own free will, and not by answering an investigator's leading questions. Natina argued that Bankova's statements could be confirmed by the Finance Ministry and emails Vassilev had sent her. The lawyer told Nova TV that Vassilev had been in talks directly with the UK-based scanner supplier so as to earn a commission fee, and that Bankova, the then deputy director of the Customs Agency, was sitting in on those meetings.

In a Facebook post cited by Nova TV and telegraph.bg, Delyan Dobrev MP of GERB-UDF said on Sunday that CC-DB should expel Vassilev and Boyko Rashkov, both of whom allegedly benefited from contraband. He also urged DB to form a separate parliamentary group, to which DB replied on Nova TV that they would stay in the coalition with Continue the Change.

The Bulgarian National Television had three analysts commenting on the allegations. Valeria Veleva, Editor-in-Chief of epicenter.bg, said that while the timing of the published testimony was politically motivated, what mattered was its content, as Bankova mentioned a very large number of people, and now the prosecution service must find out if what is claimed is true. Political analyst Stoycho Stoychev said the Bulgarian society should be used to such things by now, and "this criminal affair should not affect the attempts to form a majority [in Parliament] and a cabinet". Analyst Hristo Panchugov said Bankova's allegations were intended to heighten the sense of political chaos and of a collapse of the institutions. In his words, 50% of Bulgarians at most believe the elections were fair. Also, Parliament's approval rating, which was around 7%, has hardly increased. Panchugov opined that even if a government is formed, it will not stand a chance of success.

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The news media cover the last hours before the presidential election with reports from correspondents and Bulgarians who live in the United States.

BNT's correspondent Simeon Gasparov said from Chicago voter turnout was very high. More than 75 million Americans had voted by Sunday morning, meaning that more than half of Americans have already cast their vote. Results from Iowa, for instance, give Kamala Harris a lead, but overall Trump continues to hold a slim lead that could melt away at any moment, said Gasparov.

Prof Oleg Yordanov, who teaches mathematics and physics in North Carolina, told BNR there is a razor-thin margin between the two candidates of about 1%. In Pennsylvania, it is almost 0%. In North Carolina, Trump leads by about 1%. The scientist said that initially, Harris gained momentum, but then it was exhausted. As a downside, he noted that she distanced herself from Joe Biden's economic policies. The deep state thesis seems to be helping Trump, said the professor, who believes that the deep state is actually professional institutions that are not dependent on a particular party and ideology.

bTV's team has interviewed three Bulgarians about the key role of the arms debate during the election campaign. The story sets the scene by saying: "Shooting in the Nevada Desert early in the morning on your day off is not unusual for Yuri, Valeri and Kaloyan." One of the men, Yuri Angelov, who lives in Las Vegas, said shooting victims in Europe are not fewer, the fact is that the US is like 50 countries. Guns are politics, among other things. Trump knows his voters well - for many of them, upholding the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, is extremely important. The Democrats' attempts to restrict the sale of certain assault rifles has made the debate for or against guns one of the top issues during the campaign. "Biden hasn't done anything in four years. Now Kamala says she is going to do something, but I don't believe it. It's such an industry, they're not likely to stop it," Valeri Stefanov said.

LIFESTYLE

24 Chasa leads with a story about a plan to crack down on speeding by installing 21 speed cameras between Sofia and Burgas (on the Black Sea). In six days in October, the traffic police conducted an experiment on a 10-km stretch of the capital's Northern Speed Tangent, where the speed limit is 120 km/h. The speed tickets would have topped BGN 104,000. For instance, one driver clocked in an average speed of 203 km/h and 494 were driving at over 140 km/h.

Also 24 Chasa quotes Regional Development Ministry data showing that even to date, 242,000 people still have water rationing. By comparison, they numbered 345,000 in the summer. The 12 water reservoirs which provide drinking water and are managed by the Environment and Water Minister were filled to 65% of their capacity in end-August, down from 76% a year earlier. Still, the settlements which draw drinking water from those dams have uninterrupted water service.