Veteran MP from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) and DPS–New Beginning Hamid Hamid, known as “Peevski’s shadow”, is set to return to Bulgaria’s parliament even though he did not win a seat in the 30th Shumen electoral district.
With 12,296 votes in the election, DPS will have only one parliamentary seat in Shumen. Hamid finished third on the party list after being overtaken through preferential voting.
Now the first and second candidates on the list, Nida Ahmedov and Aysel Mustafova, will give up their parliamentary mandates, allowing Hamid Hamid, who finished third, to enter parliament.
Ahmedov, who is mayor of Kaolinovo, announced the decision to Radio Shumen. He did not respond to calls from the independent publication “Za Istinata” seeking comment.
According to Ahmedov, neither he nor Mustafova had been pressured to give up their mandates.
“We made the decision together, and nobody was pressured,” said Ahmedov, who headed the DPS list.
“Unfortunately, 12,200 votes give us only one parliamentary seat, so we met and decided how to proceed. I decided that Hamid Hamid’s experience and legal expertise would be much more useful in parliament than mine,” Ahmedov said.
He added that he had already submitted his refusal to take up the mandate and that Mustafova was expected to do the same.
Ahmedov said DPS had achieved almost the same result in Shumen region as at the previous parliamentary election in October 2024.
The party did lose some votes, although not as many as other political forces. Peevski’s formation received more than 1,200 fewer votes than in 2024.
Ahmedov attributed the decline to the current political situation.
“Because the euro was not brought under control, prices were not brought under control, and people are looking for salvation – and they saw it in Mr Radev’s party,” he said.
The Kaolinovo mayor also criticised the police operations against alleged vote-buying in the run-up to the election.
In the village of Todor Ikonomovo, police twice found lists of names and cash, including counterfeit €50 and €100 banknotes.
“There have never been votes bought in Kaolinovo,” Ahmedov said. Regarding the lists and money found during the police operations, he said police had searched pawn shops where counterfeit euros had been seized, but “this has not been proven to be fake votes”.
Ahmedov welcomed the prospect of a stable parliamentary majority and a stable government.
“This vicious cycle of elections, which also gets in the way of municipalities, will stop,” he said, expressing hope that the new government would treat all municipalities equally.
