Bulgaria Advised to Allow Minority Languages in Election Campaigning

The Council of Europe (CoE) has recommended that Bulgaria allow its minorities to use their mother tongue during election campaigns.

Another recommendation is to include representatives of the opposition at all levels in election commissions so as to avoid the dominance of the ruling party in the leadership, the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reported on Tuesday.

According to a report of the the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, the local elections held in October 2011 were held in line with European standards.

CoE observers, however, warn about some problems too.

"A major problem is vote buying. The fact that vote buying and selling, according to the law, is now a criminal offence in Bulgaria is a positive development. There is also another problem - election campaigns are only conducted in Bulgarian. It would be good to allow minorities to use their mother tongue during the campaign," Congress Rapporteurs Artur Torres Pereira told BNR.

Prior to the elections in October 2011, Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, party campaigned in Turkish during an election rally in the Roma-populated Borovets borough in Kardzhali.

His opponent Kasim Dal, a former key figure in DPS, also campaigned in Turkish at an election rally in Razgrad.

The two did this despite the despite the legal ban on such activities and the fine of BGN 2000 provided for such cases.

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