Политика

Two people close to F. Beev backed out at the last minute.
There are five times fewer candidates for mayor of the municipality of Velingrad compared to the last elections in the autumn of 2003. Then in the election race entered a record 15 candidates, and for the upcoming partial elections on February 12, 2005. There were three candidates left. The chronology of events during the week looked like this: On the morning of February 13th, former mayor Fidel Beev and the two deputy mayors in his team Stoyan Dulev and Recep Hodzhov first registered to participate. On the last day for registration February 17, documents were submitted by Atanas Vodev, who went on official leave as temporary mayor and Angel Toporchev, who was deputy mayor during the term of Dr. Tsvetan Dafov and then also was temporary mayor. Ten minutes before the deadline for registration on January 17, however, Stoyan Dulev and Recep Hodzhov gave back and officially gave up participation in the election race. This strongly reminded their behavior as rulers when through them Mr. Beev orchestrated the situation with resignations and sick leave. Apparently, the circus continues in the election campaign.
Interesting and indicative is the form of participation chosen by the mayoral candidates. A big party mess got involved around the nominations of the trio Beev - Dulev - Hodzhov. In these elections, Fidel Beev chose as a rocket-bearer a National Association of Parties in Bulgaria, and in recent months he has also made attempts to create his own party. It was expected to be raised and supported by the coalition Bulgarian Republican Bloc, which includes United Labor Bloc with leader Krustyo Petkov, NS BZNS with leader Yane Yanev and NDPS with leader Guner Tahir. From Pazardzhik several times the three leaders loudly voiced their support for F. Beev, but the participation of the NDPS obviously did not appeal to the DPS at all and the election strategy was changed. Stoyan Dulev, whose political career was formerly associated with the BCP "G. Dimitrov", would have joined the mayoral race as a candidate of the Green Party in Bulgaria, chaired by Alexander Karakachanov. Recep Hodzhov was registered as a candidate on behalf of the United Labor Bloc. Its leader Prof. Krustyo Petkov had publicly announced support for F. Beev and I think he was surprised by his new candidate.
As an independent candidate, nominated by a 5-member Initiative Committee chaired by Eng. Stefan Shulev, Atanas Vodev is included in the elections. The initiative committee presented to the OIC over 1,700 signatures in support of the application (by law, 500 signatures are required to allow the candidate to participate). Mr. Vodev was a municipal councilor from the NDSV, but now he will gather wide support from almost the entire political spectrum. The parties that will support him will announce their decisions after the official start of the election campaign on January 18 this year. Angel Toporchev will compete as a candidate of the Radical Democratic Party. The party so far has no structures at the local level, on a national scale it is represented by Zahari Petrov, and as a proxy before the OIC appeared Petar Yurukov.
The big intrigue in the last hours of registration was again what the DPS would decide. At a party gathering in the capital on January 17 morning, the DPS judged that it would not come up with a solo candidacy. But there is no answer to the question of who Ahmed Dogan will support in the elections in Velingrad yet.
On the evening of January 17, the OIC drew the draw for the ballot numbers. F. Beev received the newsletter N 1, At. Toporchev N 2 and At. Vodev N 3.
Elena Baeva