Tsvetan Tsvetanov, former Interior Minister and Deputy Chair of center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) has insisted that Bulgarian laws oblige a number of state institutions to forward the petition of GERB for voiding the May 12 elections to the Constitutional Court (KS).

In a Friday interview for private TV station bTV, Tsvetanov explained that GERB would send a petition backed by signatures to all institutions authorized to forward it to the Constitutional Court (KS).

"The Chief Prosecutor cannot refuse to do this. He is a mere post box. I cannot see on what grounds they would all refuse to forward our petition to KS" Tsvetanov stated.

Tsvetanov, as cited by mediapool.bg, argued that anybody who claimed that the competent bodies were free to decide whether or not to forward the petition was not familiar with Bulgarian laws.

Under Bulgarian laws, GERB's petition can be forwarded to the Constitutional Court by the entities listed in Article 150 of the Constitution - the Chief Prosecutor, the President, the Chairs of the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) and the Supreme Court of Cassation (VKS), and the Ombudsman.

Tstevanov emphasized that Bulgaria was a rule-of-law country and the laws were to be observed.

He went on to reject claims of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) that no campaigning had taken place on the day of reflection, adding that Lyutvi Mestan, Chair of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party had given a press conference with a large ballot #40 as a backdrop.

Tsvetanov further voiced his indignation over the fact that Bulgaria's prosecuting authority had rushed to announced that some 350 000 illegal ballots had been discovered at a printing house on the day before Election Day despite the fact that the ballot papers had not been examined by specialists.

"Who counted these ballots? Did they conduct expert analysis? How come the prosecuting authority issued such a statement?" he asked.

Tsvetanov yet again swore that he did not know the owner of the Kostinbrod-based printing house "Multiprint", Yordan Bonchev, a municipal councilor in Kostinbrod from the GERB party.

He went on to say that he had found out that Maya Manolova from the Bulgarian Socialist Party had been the author of the tip-off about the illegal ballots from online forums.

"Everything which happened during the election campaign served one purpose only - that of discrediting GERB, and if GERB happened to win the elections, of making sure that Tsvetanov does not become a minister. Because I am inconvenient, because I have an uncompromising stance on organized crime" he stated, reiterating that political and criminal interests had intermingled.

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