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Presidential Elections in Bulgaria
6 posts
Written by Tanya Dimitrova
CV : I have studied international relations in Nice (France) and Sofia (Bulgaria). In 2003 I started working as political expert in the Foreign Policy and International Relations Directorate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. Since May 2006 I work as EU Affairs Expert in the Parliamentary Department. Furthermore I am member of the bureau of the BSP’ women organization. In my blog I am going to write about the upcoming presidential elections in Bulgaria. The first round will take place at October 22.
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A Historic Victory - 30-10-2006 12:37:01 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
For the first time in the new history of Bulgaria (after 1989) a president has been reelected. It is not only a victory of the democratic forces in the country but a clear sign that the period of transition is towards its end. For the first time a Bulgarian politician wins the trust of almost 80 % of the voters.
The results after the second round of the elections in Bulgaria show a clear confirmation of the victory of Georgi Parvanov from the first round of the elections. He got the support of around 76 % of the Bulgarian voters while his opponent – the nationalist Volen Siderov slightly increased his result from the first round from 21 % to 24 %. A fact that indicates that no populist manipulation can change the willingness of the majority of the Bulgarian people to develop and prosper in United Europe.
The turnout was similar to the turnout at the first election round - 41 %. The president got the support of a wide range of political parties, among which the Bulgarian Socialist Party and its two coalition partners in the governing coalition – the liberal National Movement Simeon II and the Movement for Right and Freedom. For the president voted also the majority of the right voters, the young, the people with higher education, the minorities and the women -
The Ungrounded Allegations… - 27-10-2006 17:30:40 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
Among the most frequent critics towards the president Parvanov have been the so called “cooperation with the state security service in the past” and the closure of 3rd and 4th reactors of the Bulgarian nuclear power station “Kozlodouy”.
The first one was exploited mainly from the Right and the latter mainly from the nationalists.
Regarding the first issue, it was the president himself who presented this information to the public around 6 months ago. Certainly he did so because there was nothing to be ashamed or afraid of.
The information itself is the following – there is a file in the archives of the former security service ABOUT Georgi Parvanov, not written by him. The file focuses on the time when Georgi Parvanov as a historical researcher was asked to consult the memoirs of the famous Bulgarian patriot – Metodi Dimov. At that time Metodi Dimov lived in Macedonia (part of Yugoslavia) and there was a risk for him to be arrested because in his book (memoirs) he claimed that the population in Macedonia has Bulgarian origin.
What is more important in this issue and has been underlined several times by Georgi Parvanov is the need to differentiate between those people from the security services that have dedicated their lives to the country and those who have used their posts to serve personal, lucrative and other interests.
As far as the closure of the nuclear reactors is concerned the issue is much broader and dates back from the time of the right government (1997-2001), which signed a memorandum for the closure of the two reactors, considered to be safe by the international observers but risky by the European experts.
The allegation concerning the issue is completely ungrounded taking into account the fact that Georgi Parvanov used almost every occasion when meetings his colleagues from the EU to put this question to discussion, to try to change in a positive direction their position.
Everyone who would like to read more about the president Georgi Parvanov and his campaign can do this in English or Bulgarian at: www.parvanov.bg . According to our Constitution the president has a 5-year term of office, renewable only once. -
Political Maturity - 25-10-2006 15:10:24 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
With more than 40 % the big winner at the first round of the elections is undoubtedly Georgi Parvanov.
But there is a big loser at these elections as well -the Right. Getting less than 10 % of the votes their candidate showed that there is a necessity for serious analyses and evaluations in the Right, and why not change of leadership. What is certain is that someone has to take the responsibility for this tremendous defeat and of leaving so much political vacuum, slowly overtaken now by the nationalists. Unfortunately, already three days after the elections, we have not seen any sign of political maturity and civil courage from the Right. They keep on being silent whether or not they will call on their voters to support Georgi Parvanov at the second round. This is quite shameful bearing in mind the fact that the other candidate is the nationalist Volen Siderov. The right leaders do not have the courage to say to the right voters ”vote against the nationalism and the aggression, support the democratic choice of Bulgaria” showing in this way that their hatred towards the left and Georgi Parvanov is actually stronger than their concern for the country and its future.
The good news is that even without their support we will manage to defeat the rising nationalistic wave. According to the polls Georgi Parvanov got a significant number of right votes and he does not need the leaders’ benevolence since their voters like and support him anyway. Because the Bulgarian people are maybe disappointed, tired of transition and difficult to give their trust but they are responsible, democratic and optimists for their European future.
Therefore we should not be afraid of the second round’s outcome. It is hardly probable that it will be negative. Volen Siderov will most probably keep his result from the first round of the elections – 21 %, which is more or less the maximum he can get from the protest vote. -
Almost there - the first reelected East European leader after 1989 - 23-10-2006 01:27:27 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
The preliminary results of the presidential elections in Bulgaria show a considerably low turnout – over 44 % and a distribution of votes for the seven candidates as follows:
Georgi Parvanov (the Bulgarian president, standing for a second term, supported by the Left) – 64 %
Volen Siderov (leader of the nationalistic party Attack) – around 21 %
Nedelcho Beronov (candidature of the fragmented right) – less than 10 %
The remaining 4 candidates got around 4 % together.
In the second round of the elections, due to take place next Sunday, on 29 October will participate the first two – Georgi Parvanov and Volen Siderov.
The opinion polls indicate that Georgi Parvanov got the highest level of support from the younger voters (18-31 years), most of the women (more than 60 % of the voters who have supported him are women), half of the people with higher education and most of the people from other ethnic groups (Roma, Bulgarian Turks).
Georgi Parvanov commented his victory as a choice for the European future of the country and willingness to continue the reforms in the country.
It is also remarkable that Georgi Parvanov was supported not only from the voters of BSP, which he presided before becoming president and the left voters in general but he managed to get the support of traditionally right and center-right voters. -
A Day of Thought - 21-10-2006 18:34:25 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
Today is the last day before the presidential elections in Bulgaria when people are supposed to think deeply and make their mind which candidate they will support and vote for tomorrow.
And indeed this time, there are a lot of things to think about. For the first time in Bulgarian elections so many bearers of patriotic and nationalistic ideas stand for – more than half of the candidates. There seem to be two reasons for this trend. The first one is the fact that the closer the EU accession is, the bigger the fears of the unknown become. Maybe it is exactly this fear of loss of souverenity and identity that make people look back in the history, in the tradition. The second reason for the “patriotism boom” is undoubtedly the fact that people are tired of the transition. There are still a lot of poor social strata in the country; the old people continue to live with the past. They are still waiting for their messiah, who will come and change their lives overnight. This makes them an easy target for the populist predators in the country, whose brightest emanation undoubtedly is Volen Siderov.
Volen Siderov is a former TV journalist, whose party “Attack” got about 8,9% at last year’s parliamentary elections and managed to get seats in the Bulgarian Parliament. He maintains close relations with the European nationalist parties and was even present at their meeting in Vienna in November 2005. He also participates regularly in international meetings on anti-globalization, the denial of the Holocaust, etc. He shares the opinion that by entering the EU Bulgaria will lose more than it will gain, becoming a buffer zone between the West and the military Islam of the East.
He makes promises he can never fulfill, he is against everyone and everything, he speaks in the language of hatred, extreme nationalism and xenophobia, his messages are insincere.
But he is also too much contrasting the leading candidate – the president Parvanov, who is moderate, good mannered, friendly and above all a man with integrity. Something Mr. Siderov will never have.
Fortunately, a broad campaign for raising the political culture in the country has been organized by several NGOs, which are trying to teach the younger generations (traditionally, the least interested to vote) why it is important to be politically and socially aware. Because only then they will be able to distinguish the fake from the genuine, the constructive from the destructive, the future from going back to a period we do not want to remember. -
Election Puzzle - 19-10-2006 15:02:59 - Only logged activists can post a comment, please sign in or register here
On 22 October this year the Bulgarians are going to elect the president, with which Bulgaria will enter the European Union. The presidential elections take place on the threshold of Bulgaria’s entry into the EU, expected on 1 January 2007.
Unfortunately, according to the leading election analysts in the country, the election campaign seems to be boring and quite vague. The turnout is expected to be very low and most probably a second election round will be needed (according to the Bulgarian constitution it is needed when no candidate gets 50+1 % of the voters). One of the main reasons for that is the fact that there are no serious opponents of the current president – Georgi Parvanov, who is after his second term of office. If he wins the elections, he will be the first reelected leader in Bulgaria after 1989. Currently he gets support from about 44-47 % of the voters. His candidature was nominated by a national committee of Bulgarian nationwide and world famous intellectuals, writers, artists, sportsmen, civil movements and political parties. Among these political parties is the PES member party – the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which he presided in the period 1996-2001.
Paradoxically the main intrigue of the elections seems to be the struggle for the second place. There are two pretenders for it – the right candidature – Nedelcho Beronov (15,5 %) – a former constitutional judge and the leader of the nationalist xenophobic party Attack – Volen Siderov (25 %), who is likely to attract the protest vote.
Despite the fact that the right political spectrum in Bulgaria has managed to “commit a suicide” during the last several years by constant internal fights and splits, all reasonable people in the country hope that the right candidate will manage to mobilize enough voters not to allow any further movement up of Volen Siderov. Otherwise the country will end up in the same situation France was in 2002 when Le Pen reached the second election round. This will not only be an extremely dangerous development but a serious slap on Bulgaria’s image as a tolerant country, a stability factor on the Balkans and a new EU member-state.
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