site.btaPresident Iotova Expects Election Campaign Focused on Ideas, Not Conflict

“I am convinced that, for the first time in many years, there will be an election campaign that is not built solely on conflict and confrontation, but will feature a clash of proposals and ideas," President Iliana Iotova told journalists. She was speaking at a forum on healthcare, organized by the Bulgarian Medical Association. 

Asked whether she was surprised by the names of parliamentary candidates who are not well known on the political scene but come from other fields, Iotova said she was rather pleased to see them. "Let there be more diverse people in the National Assembly. The more professional communities are represented, the better. What matters to me is to have competent, intelligent, and reasonable people who think about Bulgaria," she said. 

"My comment at the time of the appointment of Andrey Gurov as caretaker Prime Minister was that the first task is to hold fair and transparent elections, so I would support any step he takes in that regard, especially the work of the Interior Ministry. Ensuring fair elections also requires the efforts of all other institutions, and above all civic intolerance [toward irregularities]. The first steps are encouraging,” Iotova added. 

She added that her second instruction to the caretaker Government was to address the pressing problems faced by Bulgarian citizens.