Bulgarian Ethnic Turks Seal Joint Ballot with Energy Tycoon

Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, and the LIDER movement of shady energy tycoon, Hristo Kovachki, have registered for joint participation in the local elections.

The coalition is called "Liberal Alliance for Sofia," according to a Friday report of the Bulgarian Trud (Labor) daily.

The Head of the Sofia DPS Municipal Council, Timur Halilov, is quoted saying the coalition agreement includes a joint ballot for municipal councilmen in the capital and joint nominations for mayors in 32 villages from the Sofia Region. The ballot will be arranged based on the 1:1 ratio.

The decision if the parties will have one candidate or separate ones to run for mayor of Sofia is still pending. The coalition agreement has been reached because DPS and LIDER decided they profess common liberal values.

Three months ago the Sofia City Court issued a 3 years suspended sentence and a fine of BGN 16 M to Kovachki over tax evasion.

DPS have already reached an agreement with the Union of Free Democrats, SSD, of former Mayor of Sofia, Stefan Sofiyanski, who is entering again the mayoral race. SSD, on their part, signed Thursday an agreement with the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces, UDF, which is one of the two parties in the Blue Coalition. The other one – Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, UDF, announced they had nothing to do with the said agreement, insisting it could not have been sealed in the name of the Blue Coalition.

The Central Election Committee will accept documents for registration of presidential hopefuls beginning September 5, while the deadline is September 17, 2011.

21 parties registered to take part in the presidential elections, including the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party, the Community of Democratic Forces, ODS, the Radical Party, the nationalist VMRO, the Bulgarian Democratic Forum, the Roma party Evroroma, and SSD, among others.

73 parties have registered for the local elections.

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