Two years after Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), made his infamous statement about the "circles" of businesses around Bulgarian political parties, he again stirred discussion with a remark that vote-buying in elections was a "European practise" and ethnic voting was much more dangerous, Dnevnik daily said.

"Vote-buying is a European phenomenon. After the second world war this became typical practise. Whether it was for a pair of shoes, for cloths, or for money, that's it. We have to live through that period," Dogan said in his press conference after the second round in municipal elections on Sunday November 4 2007.

His remark came the day after other political leaders had commented on the unseen levels of vote-buying and announced tougher actions against the practise.

"When a few years ago I told you all about the "circles", I was told there were no such circles. What you see here is these circles in action," Dogan commented the vote-buying practises. According to him it was normal for businesses to use this practise to get closer to power, Dnevnik said.

At the same time, he said, those political figures who had no arguments would throw in the ethnic argument and scream "the turks are coming".
Any time we support a candidate, Dogan said, the discussions would sink to the level of ethnic remarks. "If you compete, if you want to play chess, sit down and play chess," he said.

If we would have national dignity, Boiko Borrisov, informal leader of Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), said a day later, we would react like a nation. This is a blow to our national pride, he was quoted by Dnevnik as saying.

Borissov added that he was sorry for the leaders of Bulgarian Socialist Party and National Movement for Stability and Progress, who had a coalition partner, who called something they considered a serious problem, "European practise".