Photo: Zarko Marinov.
At an extraordinary meeting on October 22, the Municipal Council in Nedelino unanimously repealed nine decisions returned by Smolyan Regional Governor Zahari Sirakov – eight of which were adopted by open vote.
It then adopted them again, this time by name and individually, as reported by a reporter from “Za Istinata”.
The items were considered one by one. After moving to a vote, the chair read out the names in alphabetical order. Each councilor stated aloud “for,” “against,” or “abstained.” This ensured that the requirement for a roll-call vote was met precisely and eliminated the flaw from September 30, when the “roll-call” was done by a show of hands. The first item on the agenda of the extraordinary meeting was a new discussion of the decisions returned by the regional governor.
On September 30, Za Istinata described how in the hall of the Municipal Council of Nedelino, votes are announced “by name” and cast by a show of hands.
“I give the floor for comments, colleagues. If there are none, let’s move on to the vote. The vote is by roll call. Those who agree with the proposed draft decision in the report to become a decision of today’s meeting, please vote by raising your hand.” After that, Chairman Veselin Kehayov stated: “13 in favor.” A review of the minutes of the local parliament meetings in the Rhodope municipality since the beginning of 2025 showed that the phrase “The vote is by roll call! Those who agree … please vote by raising your hand” is common practice in this municipality. A day after the publication, “Za Istinata” sent a signal to the regional governor of Smolyan about the illegal voting in the Municipal Council of Nedelino.
Veselin Kehayov confirmed to “Za Istinata” that this is how “roll call” voting is conducted in the municipal council he heads.
“This practice has existed for years. It was the same during the term of the previous chairman, Borislav Beshirov,” he said. On October 14, Zahari Sirakov returned nine decisions at once—eight due to the lack of roll-call voting and one due to restrictive conditions in a rental competition.
The Council revoked and re-adopted a package of decisions related to the application of the Municipality of Nedelino under the “Development of Outpatient Care” program for eight villages – Kundevo, Izgrev, Gurnati, Ogradna, Varino, Elenka, Kochani, and Varli Dol.
The Council approved the preliminary implementation of the decisions, and Mayor Boyan Kehayov has two days to complete the documents for the eight outpatient clinics and submit them to the Ministry of Health. The deadline for submitting project proposals is October 24, 2025.
