For a long time, the preferential vote was considered a measure of intra-party democracy. However, in the first round of the local elections in Kardzhali Municipality, he played a bad joke on the favorite parties. Their preliminary calculations, as well as their hopes from the exit poll, collapsed completely. The hegemonic party received 2,000 invalid ballots, even though it had warned voters not to use preferences. Voters marked the preferences, not the party number. Another formation, which counted on 3,000 votes from its white-haired voters, lost half to invalid ballots. Even the expressers of the change suffered a reshuffle in the councilor lists as a result of the shuffled preferences.
Today is the second round of voting in the Region. But in the Municipality of Kardzhali, everything has been decided for the election of municipal councilors. Because of the preferences, the hegemon party could not get a qualified majority in the local parliament. Many blame ballot-only voting for this. But is it really so?
Georgi Kulov
