site.btaParliament Rejects President's Veto on Election Code Amendments

October 8 (BTA) - The National Assembly rejected, on
124-89 votes, President Rumen Radev's veto on some of the
proposed amendments to the Election Code.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the Movement for Rights and
 Freedoms (MRF) and six independent MPs supported the veto.

The ruling GERB, United Patriots, Volya and one independent MP
voted for the readoption of the amendments, i.e. against the
veto.

President Rumen Radev criticized the proposals related to paper
and machine voting in parallel, pointing out that this would
only render machine voting pointless and the voting process
itself more difficult. The Head of State also has objections
against tasking the Central Election Commission with the
procurement of the voting machines, and against the cancellation
 of the ban on conducting national referendums to resolve issues
 within the competence of a Grand National Assembly.

Krum Zarkov MP of BSP said that Bulgaria's election legislation
over the past three years resembles a soap opera: a recurring
storyline, unending heartbreak and an expected end. In his
opinion, the majority is trying to sabotage and render pointless
 machine voting, and that would not reduce the large number of
invalid ballots.

BSP leader Kornelia Ninova called for unity to avoid election
manipulation, adding that high election turnout will be key.

Aleksandar Ivanov MP of GERB responded by saying that no country
 in the world uses machine voting, and reminded that Ninova and
Radev were also elected through paper voting.

Yordan Tsonev MP of MRF said that his parliamentary group will
support the veto and vote against the proposed amendments. In
his opinion, there are so many invalid ballots because of the
preferences. He explained that invalid ballots are not the
result of machine voting, but of the suddenly embraced idea that
 preferences on the ballots are good. According to him, only
machine voting can guarantee a flawless election process.

The ruling GERB were firm in their position that the option to
vote either by machine or paper is requested by the electorate,
regardless of affiliation.  

NV/MT


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