The Event: Presidential elections Bulgaria 2006.
The Place: National Palace of Culture (NDK), Sofia.
The Date: October 22.
The Equipment: Tape recorder, camera, notebook, pen and a mobile phone.

My colleague Elitsa Savova of www.sofiaecho.com and I arrived a little bit before 8pm at NDK. It was the first time for both of us to be covering such a major political event, so we were understandably excited.

With our yellow press passes flapping around our necks, we headed to one of the main entrances. And just on time. One of the main pretenders for the job of head of the Bulgarian state was arriving on the scene. Volen Siderov, leader of the ultra-nationalist Ataka party, was immediately encircled by camera crews and dozens of microphones. A foreign journalist was reporting to his camera in English: "Volen Siderov, the nationalist who wants to unite all angry Bulgarians, is entering the building...". Only the red carpet was missing. After a thorough police check, we followed Siderov inside, but he was quick to seek refuge in his party's headquarters from the media.

OK! We are inside; next let's get orientated. Where is the conference hall, where are the computers, and last but not least, where are the bathrooms, coffee shops and smokers' corners. It was 8.30pm, and bearing in mind the pattern of previous elections, we were preparing ourselves for a long night.

The conference hall was pretty empty, with only journalists walking here and there. The real fuss was in front of the candidates' election centre headquarters, and the special studios set up by Bulgarian TV channels in the hallways of NDK. Queueing one after another, politicians, political scientists, sociologists, singers and everyone who fits the profile of a public figure in Bulgaria, was there.

Of course the key actors of the day, or perhaps the night, were hiding inside their headquarters, carefully protected by guards.  Photographers stretched over the heads of the bodyguards in the hope of an expression or a gesture that would be memorable, profitable, preferably both.

Polls were closed, and word was that - as expected - the second round would be between incumbent Georgi Purvanov and Siderov. This meant that for the right-wing parties and their candidate, Nedelcho Beronov, it was all over, and all that was left to do was to offer explanations for their defeat.

So to speak, journalistic fins sliced through the water towards the victims.

"What was the reason for the loss? What does this mean for your party? Why you could not get right-wing supporters to vote for your candidate? Was Beronov the most suitable one?" Ask and you will be answered, sort of.

By mobile phone to waiting fingers on keyboards, the words and images went.

Naturally, among the political stars and waiting journalists, there were the hangers-on and those who found some reason to place themselves on the fringe of the action. Politicians who had receded from the scene 10 years before, relished the opportunity of another touch of warmth from the television lights. Singers, athletes, talk show and game show hosts, and yellow press hacks added to the colourful picture at NDK. It was a mess, but a nice mess.

On the faces of people from the headquarters of Purvanov and of Siderov, there were smiles, and within the respective rival camps, exchanges of hugs and quips. Among the ranks of the centre-right, faces were long, and the mood was sombre.

As we waited for the official news conferences to start, a mood of expectation arose, with urgent chatter, chuckles and rapid exchanges of gossip, with waiting eyes on the row of chairs behind the microphones, a little like the last moments before the theatre curtain rises.

Photographers took up their vantage points at the podium to capture the coming participants. Some foreign ambassadors appeared and of course were immediately buttonholed by The Sofia Echo team. We like ambassadors and hopefully, they like us.

The seats in the hall were divided into sections. Two signs said "Journalists Only" but out of illiteracy or arrogance, some official guests nabbed them for themselves, in one case leaving an entire section journalist-less.

A few minutes before 10pm, an upsurge in noise and a wave of people standing up signalled the arrival of Purvanov and his posse - as the candidate who had the most votes, he had the prerogative to speak first.

Our plan was for one of us to ask questions, and the other to take photos and get the word out to those waiting fingers on keyboards, and ensure the most comprehensive, most up-to-date, stories on our website.

Two minutes for photographers to take their pictures, and then complete silence - something that had seemed impossible a few minutes before.

Purvanov's opening remarks went on for 20 minutes. He may have won the most votes, but it was a largely unsmiling performance. His expression and body language were not really those of a President poised to keep his job for another five years. Perhaps, or perhaps not, there was a subtle political message in his tie - blue and yellow stripes, not Bulgarian Socialist Party red. The "president of all Bulgarians", his campaign message had been, so perhaps his tie was a little banner to illustrate the point.

I kept thinking what the Editor-in-Chief had exhorted us to do, at the pre-election planning meeting: "Ask questions. I want to see you both on TV, asking questions. Our questions," he had said.

And there it was. Question time. But my first-ever election news conference was a disappointment. There is no doubt that one must fight for the right to the mike and put one's own questions, but the news conferences that night led to the conclusion that the presidential candidates had their favourites among the media. What was supposed to be a fight for the several microphones in the hall turned out to be a well-organised show. The media people of all the candidates who spoke at NDK that night, had a list with names in front of them. The names were simply announced and the respective journalist had all the time in the world to ask his or her question. The questions were not easy to answer but still, this showed that some journalists were more equal than the others. Quite reasonably, all the national Bulgarian-language radio, TV and wire-agencies media asked the first questions, but then it turned out that there was no more time for other media.

"We could have just stayed at home then and watched the event on the television," I thought as I waved in vain to Siderov's media person.

At the Siderov news conference, his media person opened question time with the words: "And now I would like to give the word to the most Bulgarian of all media channels, SKAT".

This caused some amusement among the journalists; SKAT is a cable channel, not a national channel, and is in essence a mouthpiece for Siderov, who has a daily 15-minute slot.

The SKAT reporter responded to the grumbles and titters among the reporters, by saying "what did you expect after the media embargo imposed on us by Purvanov's media people?"

The second question was assigned to "the pro-Bulgarian Ataka newspaper".

The news conference was rounded off with a truly bizarre stunt. As Siderov's media person was explaining that time had run out, the chance to ask a final "extra" question was given to a Roma reporter from the little-known Roma Information Agency.

The softball question was carefully crafted to serve as a set-up for Siderov to explain his plans for Roma inclusion. Anyone who might have thought, alternatively, that the Roma reporter was trying to mock Siderov was swiftly disabused of the notion by Siderov's long and clearly well prepared exposition of his views on the Roma and their problems.

Siderov continued speaking for five minutes. Apparently he did not hear his assistant saying that they were running extremely late.

A journalist for national public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television shouted at Siderov: "Why don't you answer a question from BNT since we have been broadcasting you live for the past hour?" but Siderov ignored her and even allowed the Roma reporter to ask a second question which was "applauded" by the other journalists.

Next was the right-wing Beronov. The pattern was the same. The media person followed his list and the rest of the journalists were just spectators. The excuse we got from Beronov's headquarters was not much of a relief. It was 1.30am, and although there was supposed to be three other news conferences, everyone started gathering their equipment. A tiny clutch of journalists, on assignment from news agencies, and a very few of the candidate's faithful disciples, stayed for the also-rans, but in reality, the October 22 show was over. NDK went dark and silent, awaiting the sequel, on October 29.