"It's critical that people in Sofia really go out and show what kind of future they want for the city. Do they want a well governed, ordered, secure, livable city, or they prefer more of the same and hearing, well, it's kind of like this here, and nothing's going to change."
This is what Vassil Terziev said in an interview with BGNES. He is an enterpreneur and candidate for the mayor's office in Sofia from the "We continue the change - Democratic Bulgaria" coalition.
BGNES: Mr. Treziev, why is the change in the governance of Sofia so important at this moment, in your opinion?
Because today's vote will have a significant impact on what happens in Sofia. There is no runoff for the municipal council. So it's really essential for people to go out and to be active in voting and to really participate in the defining of their future, because the city has a lot of problems that have piled up historically after 18 years of GERB governance.
And it's critical that people in Sofia really go out and show what kind of future they want for the city. Do they want a well governed, ordered, secure, livable city, or they prefer more of the same and hearing, well, it's kind of like this here, and nothing's going to change.
So, in the same context, what is your assessment of the events from the last two days regarding the voting machines and the problems around this topic? And do you think that it will affect the credibility of the political process on the national level?
It's a very unfortunate event in a typical fashion for some of our political opponents. They pulled it off in the very last moment. We were wondering what's going to be the surprise this time? Well, that was the surprise. Effectively, it doesn't change what I said earlier, that every citizen of Sofia can go out and vote with paper. It's all the same. It's really a matter of intent and obligation. Do you want to participate in the governance of the city or do you prefer to abdicate and let other people define your destiny?
What is your expectation for today's turnout rate and also what you count on on the second round of the local elections, which are very likely to happen?
Yet, to see whether there's going to be a runoff. Until there is definitive data that there's going to be a runoff, we are hopeful for a very strong election result. In terms of is there any preferred opponent? No. Whoever gets second, we are ready. And for us, the biggest challenge was always the lack of trust of the people of Sofia and Bulgarians in general in the political class. So that's our enemy that people show. We show them a little bit of hope that things can be better and that you can have political representatives who ultimately work for them. For the people who elect us.
In terms of turnout, I hope that it will be higher than usual, that it will go between 45, 50%. And it's really critical because you know that the last two elections for local government in 2015 and 2019 more or less had issues with the validity of the votes, 15% invalid votes, which was pretty high. And the only way to battle this and paid votes is to go out and vote ultimately to exercise your basic democratic right. /BGNES
