site.btaPresident Rumen Radev: Voting Matters Most Today

"Voting is what matters most today," President Rumen Radev told journalists after casting his vote at the voting section in Sofia's MacGahan School of Transport during the early parliamentary elections on Sunday. Radev chose to vote by machine, not by paper ballot.

He commented: "We all want to see an end to this gruelling marathon of perpetual elections. But in order to have a steady and viable parliament and not just a regular government but an effective regular government capable of making bold decisions and leading the nation to achieve goals of national significance, it is important that the two institutions, the parliament and the government, have the necessary credibility. We all know that their credibility comes from mass, solid civil participation in the elections. Therefore, I call on the Bulgarians to vote." He urged everyone to take a few minutes' time in the remaining hours to go to the polls.

The President went on to say: "Let us give the parties a chance to sit together after the elections and calmly weigh all possibilities, because we really expect to have a regular government. I will approach all parties that will enter the 51st National Assembly, to solicit their opinions about how they see this process, so that the best possible conditions will be in place for negotiations among the parties and a good solution will be found."

He added: "We are waiting for the results of the elections to see whether the Interior Ministry has dealt with vote buying and employer-controlled voting. There are what might be called critical voting sections, where the votes for the various political forces vary beyond credibility, and it is there that we can look to see whether the Interior Ministry has coped – but this is not just a problem of the Interior Ministry. Efforts are made locally. The question is whether these efforts pursue honourable goals. We will find out."