site.btaPresident Calls for Positive Rhetoric during Election Campaign

President Calls for Positive Rhetoric during Election Campaign

Sofia, October 7 (BTA) - In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday evening, President Rosen Plevneliev urged the participants in the campaign for the October 25 local elections to use positive rhetoric. He called on voters to be active not only on polling day, but also during the campaign, by raising questions and demanding clear and concrete answers.

Plevneliev said political parties should make full use of the remaining days until the elections by laying emphasis on the ideas and plans of their candidates. "We should let our compatriots make an informed choice about whom to support and what they can expect from the candidates, because in both national and local politics, trust rests on the promises which have been fulfilled," he said. He advised against "cheap populism and misconstrued nationalism." "Bulgarian citizens expect concrete steps of modernization and progress to raise living standards in the country's regions," Plevneliev said.

"Election results cannot be justified if they come at the expense of social stability and ethnic and religious tolerance," the President warned. He also called on the participants in the campaign to show respect for their opponents.

Discussing a national referendum on remote electronic voting, which will coincide with the local elections, the President said: "Direct democracy has been conspicuously absent during the past 25 years of transition, and now we can avail ourselves of all the good things it brings. It is therefore necessary that we all show responsibility in preparing the upcoming referendum."

He noted that international experience offers enough technical solutions for remote voting in political elections and referendums, but it also takes a will to put these solutions into practice. He said Bulgarians need to be acquainted with all possible viewpoints on the matter, get adequate explanations and have their unnecessary worries dispelled. "Regardless of whether the people will answer 'yes' or 'no' to the referendum question, no one stands to lose in the process. Every time politicians reckon with the opinion of the people, statehood is reinforced," Plevneliev said.