Истината

The past week was marked by the hot intrigue around the runoff for the mayoral chair, which seemed to leave second-guessing analyses and comments about the composition of the new Municipal Council. And the situation in it, besides being quite interesting, is of paramount importance for the development of the municipality. For the last 13 years we have had the opportunity to repeatedly convince ourselves that the local government is supported by far not only the mayor, but also the majorities in the municipal councils.
How did the parties that were still "parliamentary" at the local level perform in the elections? With one exception - below its previous capabilities. The exception is the BZNS: in the previous Municipal Council under the abbreviation OZS the party with leader Georgi Velev had two councillors, and now managed to increase them to three. 4 years ago, the Roma sections gave mass support for the OZS, but now the list with leader Snezhana Veleva except from Asphalt base received a stable amount of ballots from all sections in Velingrad. Surprisingly or not, dozens of voters from Cvetino, Ablanitsa, Yundola, Honey meadows, etc. also recognized themselves as farmers. The BSP demonstrated stability - kept the number of its five advisers. However, this stability hardly pleased the socialists, who had far greater goals and expectations. As the candidate mayor of BSP and the centre-left coalition remained fourth and the number of councillors did not increase, it is definitely time for bitter analyses and conclusions in the fragmented of personal ambitions left political space. Stable kept his seat and the only councillor who will represent the Roma population - in the previous elections from "Free Bulgaria", and those from "Roma" Stefan Asenov remained in the local parliament thanks mainly to the support from Anezitsa.

In the new Municipal Council, the DPS entered with the largest number of votes, but the number of its councillors from 6 decreased to 5. From the traditional electorate of the DPS in this vote "pulled" votes not only fallen over the board of the local parliament NDPS. Votes from the DPS also took the Green Party thanks to the powerful campaign of Fidel Beev, BZNS and Liberal Union, with whose registration in the Municipal Council entered the former leader of the DPS and current of the Democratic wing of Osman Oktay - Asim Adem, who set a record - will be an adviser for a fourth term.
After the vote on 26 October 2003. The UDF is the big loser after collapsing, remaining with only two of the previous 7 municipal councillors. The forecasts that the hard core of the blue party will not fall below the 2,800 votes cast in the last parliamentary elections were broken into pieces - only 1009 people voted for the SDF list. For the first time in 13 years, the blue party sank as much and reached a critical minimum. With 2 votes in the Municipal Council, UDF will have difficulty influencing municipal policy. Adding the fifth place of the current mayor Dr. Dafov, the blue ones are fatefully pressed by the figures in their (in)support and they will need huge efforts and changes to find the way back to their voters.
Voters also cut in half their support for the BZNS-People's Union. So far, with two councillors, the party has managed to send to the new Municipal Council only the leader Ekaterina Kaferinova. Another fact-assessment, which the current rulers of the municipality are worth analyzing without illusions. In fact, the other current councillor from the list of BZNS-People's Union Georgi Mihailov entered the new parliament, but this time as an independent. Only he was able to achieve what a total of 16 independent candidate councillors were aiming for. In the previous election, voters voted for five independents, who singled out the group "For the Municipality of Velingrad". Is the non-voting for independent councillors a kind of assessment of the work of the incumbents or the independents simply failed to cope with the never-before-seen pressure from the dozens of parties? The question is open to analysts.
The new addition to the Municipal Council are the Green Party, which started more than convincingly with four councillors, NDSV with three, Bulgarian Social Democracy with two and the Union of Free Democrats with one councillor. These are a total of 10 people who will play in the field of the local parliament for the first time. The fact that the voter sent them there obviously means that he was driven by the desire for change in municipal affairs. It is debatable whether the ballots submitted for the lists with leaders Fidel Beev and Alexander Daskalov should be attributed as a success of the Green Party and Bulgarian Social Democracy respectively or whether the vote was rather a majority one. Local elections 2003 brought to the political scene and in Velingrad two parties that fought seriously for their place in the local government - NDSV and SDS.
Below the line, with no mandates in the Municipal Council, remain a total of 31 parties, coalitions and independent candidate councillors. They garnered just over 4,500 votes, which under the current electoral system were redistributed among those entering the session by the D'Ont method. This hardly corresponds to the attitudes and desires of the people who have cast the ballot for these candidates, but politicians will soon deprive themselves of their interest-serving "extras" of the proportional electoral system. Of course, the most important question now is how the majority will be formed and who will take over the focusing many levers of influence chairmanship. It is logical for a majority to be formed around the winner of the mayoral race on the principle "There are no eternal friends, there are eternal interests". But we will wait - the Municipal Council of Velingrad over the years has proven to be fertile ground for all kinds of crosses.
Elena Baeva