The electoral process in Bulgaria took place with increased voter turnout and was generally organized transparently and effectively, according to the assessments of international observers from the OSCE and PACE. They noted that basic civil rights were respected, but the campaign was highly polarized and with negative rhetoric.
Regarding the financing of the election campaigns, data from the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment show that the parties spent just over 900 thousand euros on media advertising in the last days before the elections.
The largest expenses were reported by "Progressive Bulgaria", followed by PP-DB, "Vazrazhdane" and GERB. According to the analysis, about 70% of the funds are directed to television stations.
Iva Lazarova pointed out that it is striking that many individuals donate identical or very similar amounts, often within lower thresholds, where proof of the origin of the funds is not required. According to her, this creates prerequisites for circumventing the restrictions on financing from legal entities, introduced after decisions of the Constitutional Court.
“This leads to a situation in which formally the financing is from individuals, but in practice support from legal entities can be concealed“, it was stated in the conversation.
Aleksieva-Robinson added that the current regulatory framework has weaknesses and creates conditions for the so-called. “hidden financing“. According to her, in the absence of restrictions for individuals and with the possibility of distributing funds through multiple donors, control over the real source of the money becomes more difficult.
According to Iva Lazarova from the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment, the elections were held with higher activity compared to previous years and with more intensive actions by the institutions against election violations. According to her, this influenced the attitudes of voters and increased the feeling of control.
Former CEC Chairperson Ivilina Aleksieva-Robinson also described the vote as fair and better organized. She highlighted positive steps such as better coordination between institutions, an active role of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and efforts for an explanatory campaign towards voters.
However, experts also pointed out serious problems. Among them are suspicions of vote buying, the presence of unauthorized persons in polling stations, weaknesses in the training of polling station committees, and ambiguities in the counting of ballots and preferences.
Regarding machine voting, the experts noted that although there were no serious deviations, technical discrepancies were registered in the receipts in individual polling stations, which require clearer rules and stricter reflection in the protocols.