Bulgarians in Switzerland vote for president and for National Assembly in 12 polling stations across the country. In Basel, the election day continues normally, Bulgarian Maria Tsvetkova has reported. For many years she has been living in the third largest Swiss city, where she works at a managerial position in a large pharmaceutical company. The station in which Maria has exercised her right to vote today is located in a hotel in central Basel. Contrary to her expectations, voting takes place with paper ballots and not with machines. "I had prepared for machine voting thanks to some videos, but I had to us paper ballots," Maria says. In addition, most local voters, like her, had not been informed that they had to fill out a preliminary declaration in order to be admitted to the ballot box, and filling it out on the spot slowed the process down. "We didn't have to wait long, but as we left, a small queue started to form," Maria says. And when asked what she voted for in the current elections, Maria answered as follows:

"In fact, this has been the first election in which I really wanted to vote at all costs. I say this because in previous elections I simply did not see a political party that I would fully support. In this election, there is hope for me. The radical changes I want to see are related to eliminating corruption and to thorough reforms in the judiciary and prosecution. Maybe it's because I've been living abroad for many years. Probably, if I lived in Bulgaria, I would also feel tired and disillusioned, because Bulgaria has been in a difficult situation for too long," Maria Tsvetkova says. Along with the vote for a new parliament, she also voted for president.

“The powers of the president in our country are limited, like in other places in the world, but the president is required to be honest and selfless, to unite the people and bring a feeling of security. The President should adequately represent our country at international forums and in foreign policy. In fact, the President is the face of Bulgaria to the world and must be able to speak well and support the changes that we hope to see in Bulgaria. There are cnadidates who are somewhat close to these criteria," Maria Tsvetkova says.

English: Alexander Markov