At the other pole are the villages - in 747 of them the inhabitants are between 101 and 200, and less than 100 people live in as many as 1716 villages. There are 425 villages in which between one and nine people live, in some cases almost cut off from the municipal centers, for which the mayors or deputy mayors are the only link with the country, the only source of information, food products, medicine. Therefore, it is not unimportant what kind of people will end up in these positions of power after the local vote on October 29. Then the Bulgarian citizens will have to elect municipal councilors, mayors of municipalities, mayors of regions - in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna, and mayoralties. The latter are elected only in villages where more than 100 people are registered at their permanent address.

The aging population and rapid depopulation in small towns and villages is one of the main problems of local authorities. Another stumbling block in their work often turns out to be communication - both with citizens and with the regional administration under whose jurisdiction the given settlement is. Here we must say that administratively and territorially, Bulgaria is divided into 28 regions, including 265 municipalities.

The municipality is the main administrative-territorial unit in which local self-government takes place. Citizens can participate in it both through the election of authorities and through a referendum and a General Assembly of the population. As for the division of powers at the local level, we can make a comparison with the state government and say that the executive power is in the hands of the mayor, and the legislative power is in the hands of the municipal council. There is no judicial authority at the local level.

"There is a, let's call it, "golden mean" in Bulgaria, according to which the state and the local administration divide their functions and care for the well-being of the people”, explains Prof. Dr. Kliment Naydenov, regional expert in development and dean of the Faculty of Geology and Geography of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in an interview for Radio Bulgaria:

 “The regional governor is to some extent a contact person between the state and the local government, but if the mayor and the regional governor are from different political parties, problems and greater tension can arise, which affects the possibility of the local government to work normally. The contact between the regional governor and the mayor of any of the settlements takes place within the framework of the so-called regional councils. It is important to note, however, that rather the previous model of the relationship that exists needs to be reconsidered. It must be built from the bottom up, with the people at the bottom, who manage the mayor through the municipal councilors, and the mayor reports to the regional governor, who reports to the state level what has been done in the respective municipality."

Professor Naydenov emphasizes a serious social shortcoming that manifests itself both at the local and state level - the low or missing awareness of people regarding the powers and functions of state institutions and their leaders:

"On the one hand, citizens in most cases do not understand what the mayor's capabilities are in the management of a municipality and demand from them things that are not within their competences. On the other hand, in small municipalities there is a direct relationship between the municipal councils and the mayor, and mayors are the real rulers there. In the countries that are to the West of ours, the mayors have their reception days. However, they do not always manage to answer all the questions, and this is where the experts from their teams intervene, who could communicate to a greater extent with the citizens. However, this is something that is not done in Bulgaria. Apart from that, every municipal councilor should also have a reception day, but these, to a large extent, do not take place. In the municipalities, there are places where citizens can file reports, but they are not always examined by specialists who can correctly convey to the mayor the problems affected by the report."

As for the possibility for citizens to express their opinion, to ask questions and proposals at the level of local government, Kliment Naydenov is adamant that the only tool allowing this is public discussions

Photos: Radio Shumen, BGNES, BTA