GERB-UDF leader Borissov: It is clear to everyone new elections are coming
It is clear to everyone that new elections are coming and all parties are behaving as if they were in an election campaign, Boiko Borissov, leader of the centre-right GERB-UDF coalition, said on November 8.
Borissov, whose coalition took the largest share of votes in Bulgaria’s October 7 early parliamentary elections – the seventh time since early 2021 that Bulgarians elected a legislature – was speaking at a GERB-UDF national conference called to analyse the election results and decide the way forward.
He said that GERB-UDF is preparing for the eighth early elections and he predicted that the ninth would follow.
Borissov said that even if the 51st National Assembly succeeds in electing cabinet, there will be a struggle between the institutions and a deepening of the political crisis.
President Roumen Radev has convened the first sitting of the 51st National Assembly for the morning of November 11.
Taking umbrage at this week’s statement by Vice President Iliyana Yoteva that the newly-elected Parliament was illegitimate because no one believed in the integrity of the electoral process, Borissov asked why then Parliament was being convened for the swearing-in of MPs.
Borissov issued an ultimatum to the presidential institution and announced that he expects Yotova to apologize for her words or the president to withdraw the decree to convene the new National Assembly on Monday.
The GERB-UDF leader said that his coalition would not give up on wanting the Speaker of the National Assembly elected from its ranks.
Borissov has already announced the “red lines” in any future consultations on forming a cabinet.
Key among these is the Speaker coming from GERB-UDF.
On November 8, populist party ITN said that it had gathered 67 signatures from MPs to apply to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of the elections in 52 voting sections, over the threshold of 48 signatures required for an approach to the court.
ITN, which has 16 MPs in the 50th National Assembly, said that it had collected signatures from MPs for We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Ahmed Dogan faction of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, and populist-nationalist Velichie.
ITN said that it would provide proof of irregularities, included manipulated vote counts in tally sheets, transfer of votes from one party to another party’s count and lack of the video surveillance of the vote counting process that is required by electoral law.
Please support The Sofia Globe’s independent journalism by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
