It is still not possible to say between which candidates the main clash of the upcoming presidential elections will be, since there are several unknowns in the equation. This was stated by political scientist Stoycho Stoychev in the program “Offensive with Lyubo Ognyanov” on NOVA NEWS.
According to him, the motives of the parties that will participate in the campaign are also not clear. “The pairs of Iliyana Yotova and Andrey Gyurov were nominated by initiative committees. They are not closely supported by political parties. Mrs. Yotova is not Rumen Radev's personal candidate. Everything depends on how much the prime minister and the people around him will commit to this campaign. For example, will he appear with Yotova in some places”, said Stoychev.
According to him, nominating a candidate through an initiative committee allows for broader political support to be attracted. „In Bulgarian political practice, there is no greater cover than nominating by an initiative committee. If you want to gather all kinds of explicit and implicit political support, you have to do exactly that. In recent cases, it turns out that there are people in the initiative committees who have not become clear what exactly they support. There are also those who have already withdrawn. Such behavior is not liked by the sober-minded voter”, commented the political scientist.
The political scientist expressed the opinion that the behavior of the GERB leadership will have an impact on how their voters will act. „Abstaining from participating in elections is also an expression of an active political position. When Boyko Borisov comes out and says that the elections will not be fair, it means that he personally, by participating in these elections, will legitimize them as fair. If Boyko Borisov himself does not show up to participate in these elections and vote as a citizen, it would be a strong signal to all those who like him and recognize him as their political leader, not to go and vote”, he believes.
Stoychev also commented on which candidates could try to attract the votes of GERB voters. “Absolutely everyone will try. If you have a significant segment of voters who do not have a candidate from their party, absolutely everyone, even those without much chance, will try to say something to them. You can also see from the billboards that they talk about stability and security. These are slogans from previous GERB campaigns”, the political scientist pointed out.