site.btaReferendum Is 100,000 Votes Short of Having Its Proposals Automatically Accepted - Analyst

Referendum Is 100,000 Votes Short of  Having Its Proposals Automatically Accepted - Analyst

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - A national referendum on the election system and the party subsidies is just under 100,000 votes short of seeing its proposals automatically accepted by the legislature, social analyst Boryana Dimitrova of Alpha Research said Monday.

Her comment was based on a full parallel count by her polling agency.

The turnout in the referendum was 50.3 per cent.

In Sunday's national referendum held simultaneously with elections for a new President, Bulgarian voters were consulted on three questions: Do you favour electing National Representatives by an absolute majority in a two-round majoritarian system? Do you favour introducing compulsory voting in elections and referendums? Do you favour setting the annual state subsidy granted for financing political parties and coalitions at 1 lev per valid vote received at the last parliamentary elections?

Two conditions must be fulfilled simultaneously for the referendum proposals to be accepted: participation of at least as many voters as those who cast ballots in the latest parliamentary elections (in 2014, i.e. 3,500,585); and "yes" votes representing more than half of the valid votes cast.

An overwhelming majority answered "yes" to all three questions.

In any case, the referendum proposals are now going for consideration by the legislature.