site.btaOpposition BSP Leader Comments European Election Performance, Suggests Formation Should Elect New Leader

117 POLITICS-EUROPEAN ELECTIONS-BSP

Opposition BSP Leader Comments
European Election Performance,
Suggests Formation Should Elect New Leader


Sofia, May 27 (BTA) - The leader of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Kornelia Ninova, has suggested to the party that after the Socialists' poor performance in the May 26 European Parliament (EP) elections, BSP should start a procedure for electing a new chairperson. Ninova spoke at a news conference about the EP elections here on Monday. She noted that the next BSP leader will be the first one elected according to new rules, i.e., by all members of the party.

Ninova stressed that she has not resigned from her post, and that the suggestion to elect a new leader came from the whole leadership of the BSP. She also said that she will propose to the party to return to Parliament, which the BSP quit in February over a disagreement with amendments to the Election Code.

Ninova said she will run in the elections for a new BSP leader, on the same footing as the other running candidates.

"You cannot say that as of now I am outgoing chairperson as the BSP National Council is to get together on Tuesday to prepare the rules and procedure [for the election of the new leader]," she said.

Ninova invited all local structures of the party to hold conferences for analysing the outcome of the European elections and deciding whether to elect new local leaders.

The Socialists' leader said that she will insist on quick conduct of these party meetings, so that the procedure for the election of a new leader could be held within a couple of months.

According to her, the responsibility for the election defeat is shared.

Mediapool.bg writes that until two years ago, the BSP head used to be elected by congress. In 2017, on a proposal of Ninova herself, the BSP congress decided to change the procedure for electing the party leader, whereby he/she is elected by the votes of all party members.

The report in Mediapool.bg says that the internal opposition in the BSP disagrees with Ninova's idea for direct election, so that they will insist on holding a congress and return the old rules.

Ninova said that she did not think BSP's absence from Parliament influenced its election performance. In her words, two weeks prior to the elections, the polls predicted headway for the BSP, when the party did not attend parliamentary sittings either. "Something happened in these two weeks, but what did is a matter of analyses," she said. /ZH
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