European elections: Bulgarian citizens losing free vote

The European elections in Bulgaria were marred by the buying and manipulation of votes by economic interest groups. A similar scenario is expected in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The daily Dnevnik comments: "Nineteen years after the first multi-party elections we are once again running the risk that citizens lose the free vote. Huge organisational and financial resources are being used to exert increasing influence on controlled elections. The upcoming elections are decisive, not just for the preservation of the status quo but also for the conservation of the party structures that the perestroika [restructuring] of the totalitarian regime created. … Key political players from those times are prepared to go to any lengths to ensure their own survival by pretending we live in a representative democracy, free market economy and constitutional state."

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