Bulgarian nationalist leader Volen Siderov has called for a nationwide recount of the results of the October 23 presidential and local elections. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, he presented photos showing ballot bags with ballots falling out.
Demanding a recount in which individual ballots would be counted one-by-one, the leader of the nationalist Ataka party urged all members of electoral commissions and party-affiliated observers to come clean and present facts as they stand.
Siderov suggested that all representatives of all political parties which had participated in organizing and staging the elections, all media outlets and representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should gather in one hall and start the recount. In his words, the step would reveal the manipulations of the election results.
At the same time, Martin Dimitrov, Co-Chair of Bulgaria’s right-wing Blue Coalition insisted that decisions of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) must be open to appeal.
He said that the municipal electoral commission in the southwestern town of Razlog had sent a letter to alert CEC that the ballots used there were transparent but the issue had been left without consideration.
The right-wing leader noted in conclusion that Sunday’s elections had been characterized by excessive manipulations.
Full Article: Bulgaria: Bulgarian Nationalists Seek Recount of Election Results – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.