site.btaMRF Headed by Ahmed Dogan Started Consultations on the Candidates Lists - Dzhevdet Chakarov

On Thursday, the leadership of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms headed by Honorary Chair Ahmed Dogan started consultations on the candidates lists for the October 27, 2024 snap parliamentary elections, Dzhevdet Chakarov, one of two rival MRF leaders and an aide of the Honorary Chair, told reporters here.

According to an announcement by the MRF press office on Facebook earlier in the day, Dogan was in the MRF headquarters for consultations on the candidates' lists.

Before Chakarov spoke to the press, Beytula Sali of the MRF local chapter in Samuil, northeastern Bulgaria, said that Ahmed Dogan and Dzhevdet Chakarov will be the party's top-of-the-list candidates in the northeastern constituency of Razgrad.

Asked if it would be Dogan who would say who will run for Parliament, MP Valentin Tonchev said that it would be decided by the collective bodies of the party.

Tonchev said, "The lists will be put together by the collective bodies of the party. That is something Delyan Peevski and his aides were expelled from the party - because they destroyed the collective bodies of the party," Tonchev said.

Delyan Peevski is the other party chair and the head of a rival faction after a rift over control in the party. He was expelled by Dogan's wings along with his aides, after expelling Dogan's loyalists from the MRF group.

Tonchev added that the MRF structures "want Dogan to lead all candidates lists but the law does not allow that". 

Peevski's faction of MRF will be running in the October 27 elections in the MRF-New Beginning coalition. Dogan's faction will be running in the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms coalition. 

Dzhevdet Chakarov also said that "Mr Dogan is in excellent shape, in very good health". He also said that Dogan will make a statement for the press once the consultations on the candidates lists are over. "We discussed six regions," he said but would not mention any names.

Bulgaria has 28 regions.

He also spoke about the collective bodies of the party "functioning very well, normally". "The arrangement of the candidates in the lists is being discussed in the established way for 30 years now," he added.

He believes that the MRF local chapters "are in very good condition and optimistic about the elections". 

He thanked the local chapters, the regional and municipal councils of the party for "the smooth nomination procedures".