The National Council of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) on Sunday voted to expel former BSP leader Korneliya Ninova from the party. Georgi Svilenski, Ivan Chenchev and Krum Donchev were also expelled from the party, according to what they told the media.
On Sunday morning, supporters of Ninova gathered in front of BSP headquarters in Sofia before the National Council meeting. Tensions mounted between the crowd and the police officers guarding the entrance to the party headquarters.
Ninova was asked whether she would go on Monday to the Central Election Commission, where registration of parties and coalition for the upcoming elections begins, because according to the court she is still the outgoing chair of the BSP. She told the media that "legally, the party is in an absolutely unprecedented situation - a chair, who was expelled from the party, is still a chair by court registration". Ninova said that time is needed to assess the situation before she can give any response.
"Our efforts should be focused on getting the BSP to the elections. I cannot allow the BSP to remain out of the elections because of the folly of these people," she said.
Ninova stressed that she had "no intention to block the registration of the BSP" for the elections in October.
Georgi Svilenski said that he expected at least one reason for the expulsions and noted that there were none.
"What's worse is that this decision was made by between 65 and 70 votes. People who are not members of the National Council of the BSP were present in the hall, the socialists who stood at the front all day were not allowed in. 95 votes are needed for such a decision to be taken. We were very clear that they did not have such support. We were prepared to vote ourselves out, if only to help them, because they had no arguments. The vote was achieved with the help of the tellers who manipulated the vote count," Svilenski told the media. He said there was no quorum at the National Council meeting. "Three times I asked the moderator Kristian Vigenin to check the quorum, he refused, which gives grounds to challenge all decisions," Svilenski said.
Ivan Chenchev said that three other members of the National Council had resigned.
/VE/
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