It will become clear next week what will happen to the anti-epidemic measures. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev on „NOVA“ and he added that no one can predict in advance what will be loosened and it depends on the pace of the disease. According to him, there are countries that have spent most of 2020 in a heavy lockdown, and yet the number of patients there is high.
„After lockdowns, people become infected.The measures must be implemented wisely.“
According to Donchev, the best the government can do is allow businesses to operate. He added that he would not like restaurant keepers to open their restaurants, despite the restrictions.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that the business support schemes that were implemented at the beginning of the COVID pandemic were the subject of much greater interest than the current ones. According to experts, this is due to the distrust of the people in them, as industry representatives commented that only certain companies close to the government have received support. Donchev, for his part, said that most likely the small number of companies applying for state support is due to the fact that some of them are in the informal sector.
The Deputy Prime Minister also commented on the topic of the upcoming parliamentary elections. According to him, video surveillance is a good practice and another measure of transparency.
„There were concerns about whether it was possible to have live surveillance in 12,000 sections in the country.“, the Deputy Prime Minister explained, adding that there were areas for which real-time transmission was impossible.
„Usually, if there are unfair political technologies, they are practiced outside the polling stations. The entire election administration is composed of representatives of various political forces. There is a confrontation of interests there, which would not allow the relevant commission to commit atrocities.“
According to him, an option should be sought to drop all restrictions if someone decides to record the election process with their phone.
„The protocol will be publicly available and anyone can analyze it. If there is an error, it can be corrected and commented on. There is nothing wrong with another measure of transparency.“
Donchev believes that there are several „pitfalls“ in voting by mail. He claims that there is a significant risk of abuse of the right to vote and this is evident from the experience of other countries. According to him, the other concern is that there is no guarantee that the envelopes full of ballots can be delivered on time.
„The third reason is the lack of guarantees for the secrecy of the vote.“, Donchev commented.
Still, some measures must be taken to ensure the fairness of the vote, political scientists say. They recall last year’s protests, which continue to this day demanding the resignation of the government, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Prosecutor Generel Ivan Geshev. The protests began on July 9th after Democratic Bulgaria co-chair Hristo Ivanov demonstrated that a Black Sea beach was inaccessible to citizens because it was guarded by MRF honorary Chairman Ahmed Dogan, as well as after armed and prosecutors entered the presidential administration building. The dissatisfaction is supported by the „Poison Trio“, „Vazrazhdane“ political party, „Stand up. BG”, and by thousands of citizens here and abroad.
