There’s a societal divide on the subject of whether to be “for” or “against” the proposal for limiting the number of terms for municipal mayors to two terms.
Politicians, former and current municipal mayors, constitutionalists, and analysts joined the debate on the expediency of this proposal.
Transparency International Bulgaria reports that the demographic crisis in sparsely-populated settlements is a serious problem.
Kalin Slavov, the Executive Director of Transparency International Bulgaria, explained that in this context a problem emerges not only for the figure of the mayor as a conductor of local power, but also for the structures of the administration, as seen in the research conducted by Transparency International- Bulgaria at the local level.
In the meantime, mayors from all over the country who have served more than 5 terms have asked why this limit on mayoral terms needs to be enforced considering that people are happy with their work and have re-elected them for so many years. One of these mayors is longest-serving municipal mayor, Delcho Mitev, who has already served 14 terms in the village of Braygovo in Haskovo which amounts to a total of 56 years (his entire work experience up to date).
Experts unanimously agree that the proposed texts for the changes in the constitution are not clear on whether municipal mayors will be allowed to only to serve for two consecutive mandates or whether they will be allowed to run again for office after an interruption.
Slavov added that municipal councilors also serve many consecutive terms (often motivated by mercantile interests), which is why the Law on Conflict of Interest included restrictions on entering in contractual relations with the municipality for members of the local council.
The entire interview with Kalin Slavov is available on the Bulgarian National Television website (in Bulgarian).