Bulgaria's Ethnic Turkish Party Claims Presidential Vote Must Be Cancelled

Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) believes that there are reasons for seeking a cancellation of end-October's presidential elections and remains ready to discuss various methods of contesting the results.

DPS' stance was voiced by Hristo Biserov, Deputy Chair of the party and head of its election headquarters, in a Saturday interview for Darik radio.

"Hundreds of thousands of Bulgarian citizens were deprived of their right to vote. By saying this I do not mean the residency clause, which is also a restriction of voting rights. I mean these Bulgarian citizens who were legally eligible to vote and were barred from exercising this right," he stated.

Biserov went on to say that DPS was organizing an initiative for referring the matter to the European Parliament through a question by MEP Filiz Hyusmenova.

"This question must be brought up there too.  The EP will be consulted whether such deprivation of voting rights constitutes a violation of the provisions of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Treaty of Lisbon," Biserov stated.

"We believe that crimes were committed, rather than violations of rules. By saying this we really mean crimes. We want to see an ad hoc committee established on the case," DPS' Deputy Chair insisted.