By Magdalena Rahn, SofiaEcho

The United States embassy in Sofia gave Bulgarians the opportunity to “vote” in mock presidential elections in the city of Karlovo and in the village of Banya on November 2 2008. Bulgarian National Television reported on the initiative on its evening programme Po sveta i u nas (Around the World and at Home) the same day.

The preferences were clear: 61 per cent preferred Democratic candidate Barack Obama to 39 per cent for Republican pretendant John McCain.

The experimental elections were held in the open, with 800 ballots available and lots of patriotic promotional material like flags. Throughout the day, two groups of “party reps” canvassed the voting areas, campaigning.

“We just wanted to see what people thought,” Branimir Botev, head of the Obama “campaign”, who is otherwise director of the supervisory council of the Banya winery. McCain’s “campaign” was headed by chairman of the municipal council of Karlovo, Toshko Stoev.

Asked for why he chose one candidate over another, one man in his late 30s said to BNT that he voted for McCain because “Republicans are hardliners compared to the rest of the world”.

Another man, a gentleman in his 70s, said that he voted for Obama because he “looks like a nice guy, he has great promise, he said he will lower taxes, he’ll get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he just looks nice”.