site.btaUPDATED Audit Office President Glavchev "Inclined to Accept" Caretaker PM’s Post If Asked

Bulgarian National Audit Office President Dimitar Glavchev is inclined to accept the post of caretaker prime minister if asked.

"I said I am inclined to accept," Glavchev said on Friday, emerging from a meeting with the President of Bulgaria, Iliana Iotova. The meeting was part of an ongoing constitutional procedure for appointing a caretaker government.

Glavchev has served as caretaker prime minister twice before.

"I am used to fulfilling my constitutional duties. I have twice as many reasons not to accept, since I have already been caretaker prime minister twice, but that is a personal matter and there is no text or provision for it in the Constitution. I said I am inclined to accept, but the choice is the President’s," Glavchev explained.

Two other individuals, besides Glavchev, have already expressed readiness to serve as caretaker prime minister: Bulgarian National Bank Deputy Governor Andrey Gurov and Deputy Ombudsman Maria Filipova. "I hope we become more than three, so that the President has a choice," Glavchev said. He added: "I do not understand people who put forward arguments for not wanting to take the post. Whoever is appointed by the President cannot refuse, because the consequences would be serious."

Glavchev noted that he and President Iotova did not discuss the composition of a government during their meeting. “If President Iotova chooses me, I not only have an interior minister in mind, but a whole government,” he said. He added that he would be willing to place his confidence in almost all the ministers he worked with in his previous interim cabinets. “This is hypothetical; there is no point in discussing it,” Glavchev specified.

The Audit Office chief also said that neither President Iotova nor her predecessor Rumen Radev has set any conditions for him. Radev stepped down as head of State last week, apparently to launch a political project of his own.

"Anyone familiar with organizing elections knows that members of the section electoral commissions [SEC] are appointed by local authorities based on proposals from election participants. To blame any caretaker prime minister or government for what happens in SECs demonstrates either ignorance or deliberate speculation. The government has no involvement in SECs; intervention is prohibited," Glavchev commented.

"We made maximum efforts both times to ensure the elections were fair," Glavchev said. He added that the executive branch plays a larger role in logistics and election provision. On election day, it is the SEC that takes over, and even the Central Election Commission has little influence. "If there is an alert from the commissions on election day, then the Ministry of Interior must intervene," the former caretaker prime minister explained.