Democracy

Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov has promised that the referendum on voting rules proposed January is to be put onto MPs' agenda this week.

His announcement comes nearly five months after President Rosen Plevneliev suggested that a national poll should be held on three key issues: the introduction of a majority election system, mandatory voting, and e-voting.

The question is not whether the elections in Egypt and Syria are democratic or not. They are clearly not. But when did democracy visit these countries anyway? The closest Arab countries in the Middle East have come to democracy is in Iraq and that is only because the old mold was broken by the U.S. invasion.

A major military exercise was conducted last week. During the exercise, which the prime minister also watched, Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel delivered a speech:

Only 30% of Serbians think democracy is best form of govt.

BELGRADE -- A new survey carried out by the U.S. NGO NDI and CeSID showed that only 30 percent of Serbian citizens believe that democracy is the best type of government.

New Democracy has finalized its candidate list for the May 25 European Parliament elections. It contains nominees from a range of backgrounds, including academia, sports and journalism, and is due to be announced in the next few days.

Neither the coalition parties nor the opposition can allow the sworn enemies of democracy, currently under investigation for serious offenses, to manipulate public dialogue and steer politics off course.

Despite a rise of 2.2 percentage points in two months, New Democracy trailed SYRIZA in Marc opinion poll published in Eleftherotypia newspaper on Saturday.

The survey for May’s European Parliament elections put the leftists in the lead on 21.8 percent, virtually unchanged from February, and New Democracy in second on 19.7 percent.

New Democracy’s candidate for Athens mayor, Aris Spiliotopoulos, on Friday hit back at criticism from leftist parties over his pledge that he will hold a referendum on building a mosque in the Greek capital should he win May’s municipal election.

The center-right needs a clear ideological identity. Political instability and the absence of an organized center-left have left it with the task of representing the people who believe in true democracy as well as Greece’s future in the European family.

There will be no referendum on election rules in Bulgaria alongside the May 25 European Parliament elections.