After a national holiday in which most politicians traditionally called for national unity while arrogantly bashing their political opponents, it was business as normal on Thursday. Now that all candidates for parliamentary seats are clear, the only thing that most parties (bar Slavi Trifonov's "There is such people") need to do is to actually announce their governing priorities and programs, so that voters can at least pretend to choose them not on the basis of which face they like most, or dislike the least.
For the 100,000 people who would likely be quarantined on the day of the vote choosing their candidate would not be a problem - simply because they won't get the chance to vote, according to sociologist and elections expert Tzvetozar Tomov. Mr Tomov, who used to be part of the electoral administration in the past, is certain that mobile polling stations would fall far short of being able to cover all the quarantined voters - if they are created at all, as the administration lacks personnel to even man the "normal" polling stations. In other news
Seven out of ten Bulgarian prosecutors nominated for the EU Prosecution office dismissed
On Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Council announced that it will investigate why the office of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, headed by Romanian former anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Kovesi, has dismissed seven out of the ten Bulgarian nominees for national prosecutors. According to the specialized legal journal De Facto, the EU office's central argument was that the Bulgarian Prosecution had nominated professionals with little experience in the abuse and mismanagement of EU funds - supposedly the main domain of the new agency.
Government announces another 66 million euro spending spree
On Thursday, the Bulgarian government announced a series of new budget expenditures worth 66 million euro. Most of the funds - around 50 million euro - would go towards a program for guaranteeing interest-free loans for those unable to work due to the pandemic and the program to support the liquidity of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises of the Bulgarian Development Bank. The cabinet will also fund three science programs to the tune of 6 million euro. The rest of the money goes towards reconstruction of disaster-hit towns and villages and for the refurbishment of several churches and mosques.
Electronic vaccination register launches
At 17:00 on Thursday health authorities launched an electronic register to help people seeking to get a Covid-19 immunisation to book an appointment, select a vaccine and a place where they want to get it. The form would allow a person to select a type of vaccine ((m)RNA or Vector) rather than a particular brand, as well as one of 352 locations where they can take it. The goal is to limit queues in front of so-called green corridors launched by the authorities two weeks ago. The new e-register is not linked to the separate registers kept by General Practitioners.
After a national holiday in which most politicians traditionally called for national unity while arrogantly bashing their political opponents, it was business as normal on Thursday. Now that all candidates for parliamentary seats are clear, the only thing that most parties (bar Slavi Trifonov's "There is such people") need to do is to actually announce their governing priorities and programs, so that voters can at least pretend to choose them not on the basis of which face they like most, or dislike the least.
For the 100,000 people who would likely be quarantined on the day of the vote choosing their candidate would not be a problem - simply because they won't get the chance to vote, according to sociologist and elections expert Tzvetozar Tomov. Mr Tomov, who used to be part of the electoral administration in the past, is certain that mobile polling stations would fall far short of being able to cover all the quarantined voters - if they are created at all, as the administration lacks personnel to even man the "normal" polling stations. In other news
