site.btaExpert: Increase of Voter Turnout Could Amplify Defect in Preferential Voting System

Expert: Increase of Voter Turnout  Could Amplify Defect in Preferential Voting System

Sofia, February 21 (BTA) - The introduction of compulsory voting and the subsequent increase in voter turnout could amplify a defect in the preferential voting system, known as the 15/15 phenomenon, when voters mistake the number of the ballot with the preference vote and mark both, Stefan Georgiev of the Institute for Social Integration told a BTA-hosted news conference on Tuesday.

Georgiev noted that the Constitutional Court has yet to pronounce itself on the constitutionality of compulsory voting and in the event it is scrapped, there will be a lack of coherency in the Election Code regarding the option to not support any candidate. The main argument for introducing such an option was not to force people to vote for a candidate they do not like when voting is compulsory.

Georgiev voiced analysts' concerns about machine voting, related to the fact that the election administration will have to be prepared to work with voting machines under very tight deadlines.

Machine voting will be one of the highlights in the Institute's monitoring of the election campaign and voting process. The supervision will focus on three main points - review of the legislative framework, within which the elections are held, media monitoring and civil monitoring on election day itself.

The monitoring will cover 20 media and 20 political forces and leaders, how they are covered by the media, whether certain parties, coalitions and leaders are given an advantage. In addition to that, the Institute will use an online platform to monitor the main messages from the Right and Left during the election campaign.