site.bta NGOs Call for Creating Voter Register Based on Current, not Permanent, Address

ESD 17:38:00 01-09-2014
LN1737ES.120
120 - POLITICS - ELECTION BOARD - MEETING - VOTER REGISTERS

NGOs Call for Creating Voter Register
Based on Current, not
Permanent, Address


Sofia, September 1 (BTA) - Non-government organizations and
election experts believe that the voter registers should be
based on the current address of voters, not the permanent
address as is the effective practice. The voter registers and
the problems they cause dominated the second meeting of the
election board set up by caretaker Prime Minister Georgi
Bliznashki to help him prepare the October 5 snap general
elections.

Prof. Mihail Mirchev spoke of what is widely referred to as
"dead souls" in the voter registers. In the definition of Mihail
Konstantinov, a math professor and election expert who
participated in the Monday meeting of the election board, a
"dead soul" is a name behind which no actual person exists in
the territory of the respective constituency, no matter whether
this person is abroad or is deceased.

Prof. Mirchev said that the adult population in the registers of
the Civil Registration Authority - which is the basis for the
voter registers - was 300,000 more than the adult population in
the National Statistical Institute statistics in 2005. This
discrepancy widened to 600,000 in 2009, 900,000 in 2013 and
950,000 now.

The head of the Civil Registration Authority, Ivan Getov, said
that they are aware of this discrepancy but it will continue to
exist. He was against the use of the "dead souls" phrase for
this and argued that it makes no sense to match the voter
registers and the census results because the census covers only
the people who are in the territory of Bulgaria and not those in
other countries. By contrast, the voter registers include all
Bulgarians at home and abroad.

Prof. Mirchev disagreed saying that the the Bulgarians living
outside of Bulgaria do not explain the whole discrepancy. In his
words, there are some 300,000 people who are true dead souls
and do not exist "in Bulgaria, abroad or in open space".

Political analyst Dimiter Dimitrov said that at all elections
there are some 100,000 people who are included both in the voter
registers in Bulgaria and in those for overseas voting. He
believes that having the permanent address as a basis for
preparing the registers is at the core of the problem.

Prof. Mihail Konstantinov said that the voter registers in some
population centres are much longer than the actual population
there. "This should be eliminated and it can easily happen
overnight: when voters are registered by their current address,
not by their permanent address," he said.

He believes that for 95 per cent of Bulgarians the permanent
address is the same as the current address.

The election board is having its next meeting on September 8
when it is expected to focus on canvassing and the media
coverage of the election campaign. VI/LN/