site.btaUPDATED Acting Socialist Leader Withdraws Party Registration for Oct. 27 Elections to Register BSP-Led Coalition

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) acting leader Atanas Zafirov Tuesday withdrew the BSP registration for the October 27 snap parliamentary elections as a stand-alone party and shortly after that submitted papers for the registration of a BSP-led coalition. He also submitted 9,999 signatures in support of the coalition's registration.

Upon arrival for the withdrawal, he told the press that this move would allow "proper registration" of a Socialist-led coalition shortly, "in accordance with the law, the rules, the party statute and the prior announcements". Hours later, as he came to the Central Election Commission to apply for the coalition's registration, he said, "Excited, full of optimism and hope, responding to the call of the time, responding to the historical moment, to the hopes of hundreds of thousands, I would even say millions of Bulgarian citizens for a real alternative, we registered a coalition of parties, BSP-United Left, which gives its clear, categorical statement for participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections and for an excellent result."

He defined excellent result as a result that would allow the party to be "a social guarantor in the next parliament, a social guarantor of the Bulgarian legislation and why not the social guarantor in the next government".

On Monday, Ivan Chenchev and Georgi Svilenski of the circle of former BSP leader Korneliya Ninova submitted over 4,000 signatures and registered the party for the upcoming elections. The two had been authorized by Ninova to lead the election-related procedures.

BSP's applications for registration for the upcoming elections sparked a dispute during Tuesday's meeting of the Central Election Commission (CEC), which led to a recess of the meeting. The reason was an application submitted by Zafirov to withdraw the party's application to stand on its own, which was submitted by proxies of Ninova, who resigned as chairperson of the Socialists. Zafirov requested that the petition and accompanying documents be returned to him.

On Monday, the Supreme Court of Cassation confirmed a Sofia City Court ruling of July 10 that struck off Ninova as BSP leader and representative of the party and entered Zafirov as representative and acting chair.

CEC member Erhan Chaushev described the situation as divergent claims by individuals who plead that they have or do not have representative power. He added: "There is no way that one person can request a petition collected by another person claiming to represent the party. We have never handed over petitions before."