When there is a desire for an election to be fair, it is not the technology that is most important, but the political and administrative organization. This was said in the program “Offensive with Lyubo Ognyanov” by political scientist Ognyan Minchev.
Surprisingly, the second edition of the withdrawn budget for next year appeared on the parliament's agenda. This caused the PP-DB to organize a new protest.
“In Bulgarian politics, the transfer of responsibility or attempts to do so are everyday. Perhaps not only in Bulgaria. It is obvious that at least in the person of GERB, as long as the other main figures in the government do not talk too much, we have a similar aspiration. They want to say that we have shown them that we do not want them, they have resigned and are no longer responsible for things. Those who lead the protests and organize them are now responsible”, explained Minchev.
The political scientist commented on President Rumen Radev's words that those in power are dishonestly shifting responsibility for failures in governance, price control, the debt spiral and people's social protection onto others, including through sanctions against protesting citizens.
“In this sense, Radev has the right to speak like this. But the other issue is that his statement is completely abstract and we do not know who exactly he is talking about or what”, believes Minchev.
According to him, surprises with the handing over of mandates can certainly be expected, but they will not have much meaning. “This is for the simple reason that everyone who went to these consultations with the president declared that they are not interested in forming a new government in this parliament. Whoever is given this mandate, if we trust their words, it will be passed over just like the first two”, he commented.
“When there is a desire for an election to be honorable, to be fair and reflect the will of the citizens, it is not the technology of their conduct that is most important, but the political and administrative organization of their conduct. This dispute about whether machines or paper should be used obscures the fact that this organization has been seriously lacking and has been for a long time”, said Minchev.
According to him, there is no professionalization of the election administration, and changes to the Electoral Code are always made at the last minute, despite the recommendations of European institutions with a reputation in this field. “According to them, changes should be made not for the next, but for the elections after that, so as not to influence the elections in an unlawful way”.
“Just like paper, machines have their pros and cons. Almost no one votes with machines anymore, at least in Europe, because they are afraid of hackers who may interfere”, explained Minchev.
According to him, paper voting has always carried its risks, since manipulations can always be made at the level of the electoral commissions, and have happened - both vote buying and controlled voting. “Another issue is that the role of these deformations in counting the vote is usually exaggerated for purely propaganda purposes”.
“There is no need to comment on the wishes of Asen Vassilev, or any other politician. What is obvious is that there is a political struggle between the parties of the resigned status quo and the opposition over how to treat the protest. The government did not resign so quickly by chance. The main goal was to suppress the protest”, explained Minchev.
According to him, if they had been stubborn and had said that they would resign when they decided, there was every reason to believe that the protest would gain momentum. “The resignation rendered the protest meaningless by preventing its further expansion on its own basis. He was against the budget, then against the government”.
“It is in the interest of the opposition parties to maintain the pathos of the protest, because this mobilizes people, increases the chances that they will come out to vote in the elections themselves and that these parties will receive a larger share of the votes cast, as well as a larger number of voters”, he commented.
According to Minchev, if the protest gradually begins to decline, given the decision of at least some of the protesters that their goals have been achieved, then this will have a negative impact on these things.