election campaign

The article examines and theorizes some current techniques and tools for persuasive impact in virtual space during the election campaign of the regular parliamentary elections in April 2021 and the extraordinary ones held in July of the same year. The tools “live stream”, “sponsored publication”, “remarketing function” are theoretically differentiated and practically analyzed. The possibilities and the application in the Bulgarian political sphere of the most up-to-date platform for editing and sharing short videos - Tik Tok are presented. Sustainable argumentative means that dominate the virtual environment are sought. The article is part of the project “Techniques and tools for persuasion in online communication” under the program “Young Scientists and Post-Doctoral Students”, funded by the Research Fund at the Faculty of Philosophy of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia.

At the beginning of the campaign for the European Parliament elections in Bulgaria, most polls placed the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) either in the first place, or at slight difference after GERB, but in any case, with a real chance of winning this election. Such was the declared objective of the Bulgarian socialists. However, the votes cast on the ballot on May 26, 2019 showed a different picture: BSP ranked second for the fourth consecutive time, with a considerable distance from the first – GERB. The article seeks to answer the question regarding the dimensions and reasons for the results of BSP in the elections. This is done by tracing the overall process of preparing and conducting the campaign, from the formation of the candidate list and the adoption of the election platform, through the course and eatures of the Socialist’s Party campaign. The campaign results are compared with previous results of the Socialists and with the results of the main competitor since 2007 – GERB.

The article tracks all aspects of the presidential candidacy of Roumen Radev: the process of his nomination, campaign and performance. Subject of detailed analysis is the campaign of the candidate in its various aspects - organization, party support, financing, direct campaign, media appearances, participation in election debates. The author presents a picture of his convincing victory in the presidential elections in Bulgaria in 2016. On the background of broader economic, social, political, cultural context during the campaign and election are shown the internal factors that led to this result – the effective support by the party BSP, the personal and political qualities of the candidate, the campaign performance.

The text examines the campaigns and results of the presidential elections of the right-wing candidates in Bulgaria. The reasons for the surprising failure of the candidate of the largest GERB party Tsetska Tsacheva and the poor result of the candidate of the Reformist bloc Traicho Traikov are being sought. In the first case the focus is on the late rise of the GERB candidate, on the lack of personal charisma, conceptual appearance and clear cut political values. In the second case, besides the personality and campaign of the candidate, the deep division among the right parties played a part. None of the candidates on the right offered authenticity to Bulgarian citizens.

The study is analyzing the presidential election campaign through the place and level of topicality given to the social problematic in the pre-election debates. By doing this, the study follows in the train of several research tasks that allow the systematic analysis of the leading political topics and themes in the pre-election debates. First one is, to describe the specific political accents and topics, which dominated the pre-election campaign and to underline the factors that contributed to their domination. The second task is, to analyze the degree of importance and the way of articulation of the social problematic in the pre-election campaign.

The article deals with the history of the emergence of the vice-president institution in the Bulgarian constitutional model, the motives for its creation, as well as its functions and specifics. The position of the author is that this institution in a parliamentary system and devoid of own functions is unnecessary. The role of the vice presidential candidates in election campaigns is also being monitored.