Политика

By Decree 351 of 23 November 2004. President Georgi Parvanov has scheduled partial elections for Mayor of the Municipality of Velingrad. On November 30, the decree was promulgated in the State Gazette. Residents of the municipality of Velingrad will elect a mayor on February 12, 2005, Saturday. The time limits for partial elections are slightly shorter than for regular ones. Parties and coalitions must register to participate in the Central Election Commission for the local elections no later than 35 days, and before the Municipal Election Commission no later than 30 days before election day. Candidates for mayor are registered within 25 days before election day and announced 20 days before election day at the latest. This means that no later than January 18, 2005. The names of the candidate mayors will be officially known.
The other feature of the partial elections for mayor is that the costs of their preparation and conduct are at the expense of the municipal budget. The necessary amount will have to be included in the budget for next year and will be in the order of 80-100 000 leva.
Who will hold the mayoral office until the election continues to be a contentious issue. Mr. Stoyan Dulev has contested the decision by which 2/3 of the municipal councilors removed him from office as interim mayor on the main reason that the 3-day deadline for submitting the resignation request was not met. According to lawyers in this particular case, Mr. Dulev has no legal right to challenge. He also challenged the decision by which the councillors did not elect Deputy Mayor Recep Hodzhov to the mayoral post. At a meeting with municipal councilors on November 29, the regional governor Ivan Dimitrov has said that he will wait for the deadlines for appeal.
Tempo