[size=85:1grkjyak]Novinite
Bulgarian Turkish Leader Calls for Return of Democracy Ahead of Vote
[size=150:1grkjyak]Elections 2013

Bulgaria: Bulgarian Turkish Leader Calls for Return of Democracy Ahead of Vote
Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Lyutvi Mestan. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria would either return to democracy or continue sliding into authoritarianism at the general elections on Sunday, according to Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms party.

Mestan urged voters not to allow the “authoritarian mentality to completely destroy the democratic system.”

“No one is stronger that the free will of Bulgarian citizens,” the ethnic Turkish leader declared in his last address to voters ahead of Sunday’s vote.

The center-right GERB government of former PM Boyko Borisov resigned amid massive protests against corruption and poverty in February, prompting President Rosen Plevneliev to adjourn the Parliament, appoint a caretaker Cabinet and schedule snap elections for May 12.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms will surely obtain seats in Parliament after the vote, according to pollster

Tomorrow is the day
What impact will the results have on the future way of life for Bulgarian residents and also the expat community

Here are all the voting details:-
Bulgaria’s 2013 elections: The numbers

Posted May 10 2013 by The Sofia Globe staff in Bulgaria, News

Ballot Box Photo Rama E1356091856995

[size=150:3ucu77vf]These are some of the key numbers in Bulgaria’s May 12 2013 national parliamentary elections.

The electorate: 6 868 455 eligible voters, according to the Central Election Commission. At the end of 2012, according to the National Statistical Institute, Bulgaria’s population was 7 282 041.

The budget: 21 million leva (about 10.5 million euro), voted by the Cabinet.

The contestants: Thirty-eight parties and seven coalitions.

The candidates: In all, 8148. The Dossier Commission has identified more than 140 of these are former agents of communist-era State Security.

The prize: 240 seats in the 42nd National Assembly.

Voting hours: 7am to 8pm, Bulgarian time and local time at polling stations abroad. With the permission of the Central Election Commission, polling stations may open at 6am. If there are still voters queuing at 8pm, election officials may record their names and voting may be allowed to continue, but no later than 9pm.

Polling stations: In Bulgaria, 11 676, abroad, 227 in 57 countries.

Applications to vote abroad: 78 542.

Observers: There will be 257 international observers, 28 from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, four from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, 109 from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 105 from the Party of European Socialists and 29 from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. Fifteen registered Bulgarian organisations to observe the elections, 15.

Polling agencies conducting exit polls: Seven.

Investigations: 26. Bulgarian prosecutors had 26 ongoing pre-trial investigations into allegations of electoral fraud as of May 9, including 12 probes into suspected vote-buying

[size=150:1au4f7md]How can this happen,

Bulgarian authorities seize fake ballots before election
By Angel Krasimirov

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has seized 350,000 fake ballot papers, prosecutors said on Saturday, a day before a parliamentary election that is likely to deliver no party a majority and more political turmoil in the EU's poorest country.
Bulgarian police stand guard outside a printing house in the town of Kostinbrod, near Sofia May 11, 2013. REUTERS/Lyubomir Spirov/BGNES

Prosecutors said the ballots were found at a printing house owned by the company of a local councillor from the centre-right GERB whose government resigned from office during protests against low living standards and corruption in February, but which still has a narrow lead in opinion polls.

"
Over 350,000 printed ballots, that were ready for use in the parliamentary elections, were found in stores of a printing house in Kostinbrod,"
the prosecuting office in the capital, Sofia, said in a statement about Friday's seizure.

The interim government, which took over after GERB Prime Minister Boiko Borisov resigned, said it had received all 8.34 million ballots it had ordered and distributed them to polling stations already.

The owner of the printing shop based near Sofia, councillor Yordan Bonchev, denied any wrongdoing and said it had a licence to print ballots, which the government confirmed.

President Rosen Plevneliev said he expected the Central Election Commission to respond "
to ensure the lawful democratic elections, including taking emergency measures if necessary"
, without giving details.

GERB called for an immediate halt to "
speculation and political persuasion"
on a day when campaigning was banned, but the accusation is likely to further dismay a population fed up with corruption, organised crime and low living standards.

Bulgaria struggles to supply running water and reliable electricity to some of its citizens, 2 million of whom have left since the 1989 fall of communism. In rural areas, many villages are run down and populated only by the elderly.

After a campaign marred by a wiretapping scandal, in which prosecutors said a senior GERB member had allowed ministry employees to commit crimes, and more mud-slinging than debate about policy, coalition talks are expected to be difficult and that may raise questions over governance and economic policy.

ELECTION MONITORS

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is monitoring the election and five parties - including the Socialists but not GERB - have organised a parallel vote count by an Austrian company, saying they are worried about possible fraud.

Voters are unhappy with a political class that has failed to present clear ideas on how to bring unemployment down from an 8-year high and increase an average monthly salary from 400 euros (338.41 pounds) and turnout is expected to be low and some activists are planning protests for polling day.

Many businesses are unhappy with GERB, saying it failed to crack down on deep-rooted corruption and that many public tenders are still fixed. But its record in keeping debt low and confidence in a currency peg to the euro reassures investors.

Borisov, a former bodyguard, has based his campaign on keeping tight fiscal policy and continuing to overhaul Bulgaria's crumbling roads. That has mobilised GERB's core support but sidelined protesters who have demanded more spending - and if it returns to government, it could prompt more unrest.

The Socialists may cause some unease with investors because they oversaw a credit boom and bust while in office 2005-2009 and have promised more spending and job creation - pledges which have failed to convince many beyond their core support.

If no group can secure a majority, with the two main parties running neck-and-neck, Bulgaria will hold new a election - possibly in September - and will remain under an interim government, which has committed to keep debt low but would have limited powers.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

the voting is being held in the school across the road to where i live and this morning several men with telephones were engaged with calls and discussing the price of votes!
It's all very out in the open to be disscussing this in the road.
So far here their has been a very good turn out. Peope are going into the school in their droves.
Bulgaria needs a good President and hopefully for all of us not one that goes for the Euro I feel that prices will rocket if /when the euro comes in.

[size=150:10t8p4v1]Bulgaria after the Elections: Bleak Outlook or Dead End?
Author: Milena Hristova, Novinite

Only four Bulgarian parties - those that got most discredited over the past decade thanks to corruption and links with the oligarchy - made it to parliament on Sunday.

It is either because:

1. Bulgarians' level of tolerance to nausea is very high and has got even higher than four years ago.

or

2. In Bulgaria if you have lots of money, you surely enter parliament.

I would rather put my bet on the second answer.

Prior to the elections the recently ousted center-right GERB party maintained its lead in opinion polls over the Socialists, its main rival.

Interestingly and most surprisingly to all who still believe in fair elections, this is exactly what happened on Sunday.

“If GERB is the largest party in parliament, what was the point of staging protests?”, many people ask.

Figures bear out their growing anger - 800 000 dead souls in electoral lists, half a million Roma people, who were more than happy to sell their vote, plus another at least 300 000 fake ballots.

Sounds nasty?

Well, at least those figures make the elections result more than clear and understandable, a major problem for both Bulgarians and foreigners

link please willow

[quote="
willowsend"
]SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has seized 350,000 fake ballot papers, prosecutors said on Saturday, a day before a parliamentary election that is likely to deliver no party a majority and more political turmoil in the EU's poorest country.
Bulgarian police stand guard outside a printing house in the town of Kostinbrod, near Sofia May 11, 2013. REUTERS/Lyubomir Spirov/BGNES

Prosecutors said the ballots were found at a printing house owned by the company of a local councillor from the centre-right GERB whose government resigned from office during protests against low living standards and corruption in February, but which still has a narrow lead in opinion polls.

"
Over 350,000 printed ballots, that were ready for use in the parliamentary elections, were found in stores of a printing house in Kostinbrod,"
the prosecuting office in the capital, Sofia, said in a statement about Friday's seizure.

Figures bear out their growing anger - 800 000 dead souls in electoral lists, half a million Roma people, who were more than happy to sell their vote, plus another at least 300 000 fake ballots.quote=]

Look on the bright side willow - with all that printing equipment they could have printed millions of Leva, but they printed ballot papers instead. With all those poor deceased souls not going to the ballot venues there was no queue to post their votes.

:: :: ::

willowsend wrote:

varnagirl wrote:

link please willow

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Mnogo Blagadaria

I may be a born cynic, but I see all this ending in tears and another election just down the road a bit. How this country hopes to gain the respect of the rest of the modern world is beyond me..but, then again, maybe I'm just thick! I watched Mu..be do some nasty stuff in his country some years ago and even though the methods employed here are a tad more subtle, the results are the same. Imagine filling in your ballot paper, placing it into the box in front of an armed thug who then pulled it out and read it..if you were lucky, you got a smile and your paper went back into the box..if you hadn't voted for the right person your paper went into the fire and you could look forward to a real beating when you got outside..then you had to crawl back in and vote again. Sad, but true..been there seen that..and I'm pretty sure there are one or two members of this forum who have seen it too.

Just a thought, but what are all these impartial observers from the EU and elsewhere actually doing during these elections? Answers on a postcard please......
Ray

Would n't take up any space on the back of the stamp!

chrisbriggs wrote:

Just a thought, but what are all these impartial observers from the EU and elsewhere actually doing during these elections? Answers on a postcard please......
Ray

Busy trying to get their vote counting equipment back up and running after their system was hacked.

Now, there's a surprise..due to a technical malfunction etc etc!

Can anybody make head or tail of this

[size=150:33ij90ev]Bulgarian leader bids to break stalemate
Thu, 16 May 2013

SOFIA — Bulgaria's president appealed yesterday to political parties to hammer out a coalition deal after an inconclusive election at the weekend left the European Union's poorest country with no clear candidate to form a government. Bulgaria, plagued by poverty, corruption and organised crime, has been in a state of political paralysis since nationwide protests forced the previous leadership from power, and it risks drifting further until a new government is formed.

A working government is needed urgently to negotiate EU funds for the next seven years, draft the 2014 budget and try to address popular anger over poor living conditions and high power prices that sparked the protests earlier this year. "
It is important to have a stable government. Everything else, new elections, would mean destabilisation,"
President Rosen Plevneliev told reporters. "
Bulgaria does not need new elections now. This will scare away investors,"
he said.

Political uncertainty has driven up the cost of insuring Bulgarian debt against default since last week. It now costs $110,000 annually to buy $10 million worth of protection agaist a Bulgarian default using a five-year CDS contract, up from $92,000 on Friday, according to credit default swaps prices from provider Markit. Plevneliev said he would start initial consultations with a view to convening the new parliament before the end of the month.

However, it was not immediately clear how the coalition would take shape because no single party had a majority and rivalry between parties stood in the way of them joining forces to form a government. The centre-right party of former prime minister Boiko Borisov, who once served as a bodyguard to Bulgaria's Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, won 30.5 per cent of Sunday's vote. That was despite having been forced to resign in February in the face of the protests.

The Socialists were second with 26.6 per cent, followed by the ethnic Turkish party MRF on 11.3 per cent and the nationalist Attack on 7.3 per cent. The central electoral commission has not yet said how the share of the vote will translate into seats in parliament, but projections show that no group will get over the 121-seat threshold needed to form a viable government.

Borisov's GERB party has in the past ensured a majority by getting the support of Attack, but the nationalists have ruled it out this time. GERB will be given the first opportunity to form a government, but with its chances of winning enough support slim, the president may have to invite the second largest group, the Socialists, to have a try. — Reuters