site.btaUPDATED Campaign Highlights: Sept. 9

Rise Up Bulgaria leader Maya Manolova and MP candidates placed Don't Pay campaign stickers on the facade of the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission's (EWRC) building in Sofia. The campaign calls against the payment of heating and water utility bills. Manolova explained that on Friday the EWRC discussed an increase by 45% proposed by the water and sewerage operator in Smolyan (Southern Bulgaria), meaning the water in the mountainous area would cost BGN 5.60 per cubic metre.  Rise Up Bulgaria proposes that the increase be covered entirely by the State. Don't Pay stickers were later placed on the facade of the Sofia heating utility's building.

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There Is Such a People (TISP) presented its eight MP candidates for 5th Vidin constituency at BTA’s press club in Vidin (on the Danube). TISP Deputy Chair Dragomir Petrov, who tops the list, said his party kept its promise to voters to not form a government with GERB, the BSP, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. TISP is leading a positive election campaign close to the people so as to hear their problems, ideas, criticism, and proposals. The law on referendums needs to be amended to decrease the threshold for holding them; Bulgarians should say in a referendum whether the state system should be changed as the parliamentary republic is not working, Petrov said.

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Democratic Bulgaria Alliance MP candidates for 8th Dobrich constituency laid flowers at the monument to the victims of communism in the northeastern town. Architect Nadezhda Pamporova said the Bulgarian people should not celebrate September 9 but stigmatize it as the start of a fratricidal regime. Milena Keranova said Bulgaria has been celebrating September 9 for too long, when there hardly is a Bulgarian family not affected by the communist regime. Dr Diyan Hinkov said they were at the monument to honour the memory of the victims of a shameful page in Bulgarian history when Bulgarians, following the orders of an occupational force, acted against their compatriots, and the Bulgarian State was beheaded and deprived of its intellectual elite.

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Bulgarian Social Democracy - EuroLeft leader Alexander Tomov told followers in Sofia that today one part of Bulgarian politicians celebrate the victory of communism, while another part honour its victims. He noted that 78 years later Bulgaria is still divided and is condemning the new generation to the same division. This, he said, must finally come to an end. That is why one of the first acts of the party in the new 48th Parliament will be to declare September 9 not a day of division but a day of national reconciliation.

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Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for Bulgaria leader Korneliya Ninova presented the coalition’s list of MP candidates in Targovishte (Northeastern Bulgaria) comprising only local residents. She laid flowers at the monument to fallen anti-fascists from the region. Talking with citizens, top-of-the-list candidate Svetoslav Stefanov said a serious problem for small settlements’ residents is the closure of healthcare facilities. To solve the problem with personnel shortage in healthcare, the BSP has a strategy for bursaries for working physicians. Ninova said the coalition calls for a ceiling on prices, compensations for businesses, and a strong social programme.

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The sequence of the campaign highlights featured in this report follows the ballot numbers of the 29 contestants in the October 2 snap parliamentary elections.