Like Andrew, it was very interesting for me to participate in this activity. I could very well relate to it, because when I was still living in Bulgaria in the summer of 2005, I witnessed the same situation. The “Bulgarian Socialist Party” had the most votes (33.98%), but it needed to form a coalition in order to have a majority and form a stable government. Those were times of great bargaining, or “пазаруване” as we say in Bulgaria, because it was well known that Bulgaria would be accepted into the European Union — so everyone wanted a place in the ruling coalition. At first the BSP wanted to form a coalition with the “Movement for Right and Freedoms.” However, the parliament voted against its staff. Later on, seeing that there is no other way and the stability of the country is at question, the two parties decided to let the “National Movement Simeon II” into the coalition and that is how a “grand coalition” was formed. Very similarly to our mock elections, there was a great deal of negotiation about which party is going to have a representative in one or more of the Bulgarian ministries.

As you can see, I wasn’t surprised at all when I saw all of those shady negotiations/bargaining, because I understand that they are also an important part of politics. However, the real problem comes when in their effort to provide a strong coalition, the parliament fails to predict how efficient this coalition is going to be in the future. Bellow you can find a Bulgarian add telling the people to vote.

“Did you decide which party you are going to vote for?”

“Check on localelections.com”