The big absentee and loser in this campaign are the young people.
This was stated to the Bulgarian National Radio by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Svetlana Bozhilova, media expert and lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications at Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski", and predicts that young people do not recognize themselves in the messages of the presidential candidates and that is why many of them will not vote.
"Young people filled the protest squares, but they wanted changes, they believed that these changes would happen quickly, not with a magic wand, of course... Young people are not invited to the media to express their position on the candidates' messages. In the initiative committees, the average age is 55+. We live in a different time. I communicate with many young people and I know how skeptical and ironic they are about the campaign and some of the messages in it".
According to her, the candidates use the communication channels in which young people are present for advertising, but they are missing "not just as an object, but also as a form of identification, to hear their voice, what they want - young people not as an object, but as a holder of a position on the network, including on Tik Tok".
There should be debates before both the first and second rounds of the presidential elections, the media expert emphasized:
"The point of the debates is for all candidates to answer the same questions and for the audience to be able to compare. ... I cannot understand why we are considering the debates in a collision of candidates - they are there to be able to inform the audience. Because His Majesty the viewer, the listener, the reader is the one who decides and for him the debates, the shows, and the interviews are made. In Bulgaria, everything seems to be inadequately turned upside down".
There should be serious changes in the Electoral Code, adopted in 2013 at the initiative of Maya Manolova, believes Assoc. Prof. Bozhilova:
"Changes, especially in the section on public media, they are harmed because they should be at the forefront, not following all other commercial media. ... Intelligent, knowledgeable and capable journalists do not have the opportunity to behave like journalists and waste energy and human resources on something that is absolutely ineffective, meaningless and self-serving. They should listen to the nonsense of the speakers. This practice must be overcome. ... The Electoral Code is inadequate to today's realities".
There is a requirement to monitor during the pre-election period the presence of the executive branch and the president, so that they do not indirectly adjust by virtue of their institutional role, this is in both the first and second recommendations of the Council of Europe, she pointed out and added that the European observers will monitor this:
"The media must be more careful and adequate. The recommendations are signed by the foreign ministers and are in effect in Bulgaria, but no one reads them. ... The participation in the information flow of the incumbent president is 14 times more, it will come from the quantitative accumulations and the European observers will say so".