Fair elections are the foundation of democracy, but Bulgaria lacks key elements to guarantee them - a motivated election administration, active citizen participation and trust in the electoral process. This thesis was united by public figure and former Minister of Energy Miroslav Sevlievski and Dr. Petar Slavov, Doctor of Constitutional Law, in a conversation on BTV.
Sevlievski drew a historical parallel with the early 1990s and the first democratic elections in Bulgaria. He recalled the role of the Association for Fair Elections, established in 1990 by leading Bulgarian journalists and public figures, including Dimitri Ivanov, Kevork Kevorkian and Emi Baruch. According to him, then the civic energy was extremely strong, and tens of thousands of volunteers - university professors, academics and experts - participated in the election process, who monitored and protected the vote.
"Today we lack precisely this - real civic participation and a motivated election administration. In the 90s, there were clear camps and strong public control. Now the administration is demotivated, and the citizens are disillusioned", said Sevlievski.
Petar Slavov emphasized that civic activity is important, but it is not enough in itself. According to him, fair elections require at least three main elements: changes in electoral legislation, restoration of machine voting in its authentic form and effective protection of the election process.
"Elections today are much more complicated than those in the 90s. We have preferences, complex protocols and heavy manual counting, which exhausts the section commissions and creates conditions for errors and manipulations. "Machine voting can solve a large part of these problems," said Slavov. He reminded that with machine voting there are practically no invalid ballots - unlike paper voting, where their percentage remains high.
Both participants criticized the role of "Information Service" in the electoral process. Sevlievski said that the institution has been raising doubts for years and insisted that it be closed or completely reformed. Slavov added that the lack of transparency and the refusal to implement decisions of competent bodies, including the Constitutional Court, undermine trust in the elections.
The conversation also touched on the topic of young voters. According to Slavov, for a generation accustomed to digital services and mobile technologies, the long wait and manual counting of ballots seem absurd. "If we want young people to participate, we need to talk about modern and reliable forms of voting, such as those that already exist in countries like Estonia," he stressed.
However, Sevlievski emphasized that democracy cannot be "delivered over the phone" and that fair elections require personal commitment and active advocacy. He gave examples of civil protests and the courage of young people in countries like Iran and Ukraine, emphasizing that fair elections are key not only for democracy, but also for national security, demography and trust in the state.
At the end of the conversation, Slavov called for quick and pragmatic steps before the next elections, including the restoration of real machine voting and a parallel civil and party counting of the results. "The big debate is not machine or paper voting, but what policies we propose, what candidates we field and whether people believe that their vote matters," he concluded.