Under 2.5 million people are expected to vote in the presidential elections on October 25. This is the forecast of sociologist Elena Darieva, manager of the “Nasoka“ agency, who commented on the election campaign in the program “Focus Morning“ on Radio FOCUS.
According to her, the campaign is failing to attract enough public attention. Only 29% of those eligible to vote believe that the elections are very important both for the country and for them personally.
“It is quite sterile, sluggish“, said Darieva.According to the sociologist, the tension in the campaign is concentrated mainly around symbolic topics and disputes on social networks. She believes that the constant incitement of anti-elitist sentiments is pushing citizens away from politics.
Low turnout affects the mandate
Darieva warned that low voter turnout will also affect the way the presidential mandate will be perceived.
“This first affects the legitimacy of the elected person“, the sociologist explained.To win in the first round, more than half of the eligible voters must vote, and the candidate must receive more than half of the actual votes. According to Darieva, the empirical data from the surveys so far do not indicate that these conditions will be met.
In a runoff, she expects the turnout to drop to around 30%.
A contested race for the second round
According to published sociological surveys, the presidential candidate pair Yotova & Valchev are leading. Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev are among the main contenders for the second round.
Darieva also drew attention to the close results between several other presidential candidate pairs. According to her, their electoral shares are within about 3-4%, which could lead to last-minute shifts.
“It is important to be in focus when we vote, because when we choose wisely, then we can congratulate ourselves on a conscious, informed choice“, Elena Darieva concluded.
Sources: focus-news.net