Elections

In Greece people usually vote in school buildings which are used as polling stations, but this is not always the case for other countries.

There are many voters in United Kingdom who found themselves marking their ballot in the weirdest locations; caravans, garages and pubs were transformed into polling stations for the election day.

A garage in Croydon

Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva is leaving for the US on Saturday to take part in the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament.

The forum, organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), will take place on August 31 - September 2, 2015 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, according to a media statement of Bulgaria's Parliament.

Elections are only a small part of what we call political participation. In true democracies citizens have the power to influence decisions and practices of the state at every level. This is the real meaning of political participation.

Here, on the other hand, let alone influencing decisions, most of the time we are not even fully aware of what is going on.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has set October 25 as the date for both local elections and a referendum on remote electronic voting.

Singapore celebrated the semi-centennial of its independence over the weekend. Under the leadership of its founder, Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away in March, it rose from being a poor country with no resources to one of the wealthiest and most developed states in the world.

Across the ancient world, falling irretrievably into debt was to enter into bondage to the rich. For millenia, the poor typically had no collateral for loans beyond their bodies and their labo. Aristotle said that the “poor… were enslaved by the rich.”

The Greek referendum being held on July 5 had been ruled constitutional on Friday, however it may be contested after it is held. Problems:

Greeks are preparing for a referendum on July 5 that will see the debt-ridden country either accept or reject punishing austerity measures imposed by international creditors amid a serious cash crisis, street protests and increasing threats from global institutions. 

Bulgarian lawmakers on Friday passed amendments to grant Bulgarians living abroad the right to vote in referendums held in the country.

This will enable hundreds of thousands of people who chose to live beyond Bulgaria's borders to have their say in the national poll that is due in the autumn, in parallel with local elections on October 25.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday that a proposal from the Greek government for a referendum on austerity demands should not be dismissed out of hand, though it was vital that voters had a clear deal on which to vote.