Fri, Feb 10 2012

French ambassador welcomes high turnout in Bulgarian elections

Sun, Jul 05 2009 22:20 CET

byPetar Kostadinov

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French ambassador welcomes high turnout in Bulgarian elections

French ambassador Etienne de Poncins.

Photo: BTA

The fact that the Galevi Brothers had not succeeded in being elected to Parliament showed that the Bulgarian people had a say in the future of the country, French ambassador Etienne de Poncins said in an interview with The Sofia Echo at the Election Centre on July 5 2009.

De Poncins said that the most important positive aspect of the country's national parliamentary elections was the high turnout, which showed that the Bulgarian people understood that they had a say in Bulgaria's destiny.

Another aspect was that there was a sense of there having been negative campaigns, but this was not unique to Bulgaria. France also saw negative campaigns and it was not a big issue, De Poncins told The Sofia Echo.

As to the Galevi Brothers - Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov - a duo of business people who invoked the law to temporarily suspend their prosecution on organised crime charges to stand for Parliament - De Poncins said that, of course, the principle of innocent until proven guilty was valid, but the country should have a rule against people with negative backgrounds being eligible for election to public office.

However, it was significant that the two had been rejected by the electorate.

In general, the results showed that it would be unlikely that there would be early elections, meaning that Bulgaria would have a stable government and would be a stable partner, De Poncins said.

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