site.btaPM to Meet Parties in Ruling Majority over Controversial Revisions in Election Rules

PM to Meet Parties in Ruling Majority over Controversial Revisions in Election Rules

Sofia, April 25 (BTA) - The leader of the ruling GERB party and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is meeting the leaders of the pro-government parties in Parliament Tuesday morning to discuss controversial changes in the elections legislation. The GERB announcement of the meeting says that invitations to the meeting have been sent to the parliamentary groups of GERB, the Reformist Bloc, the Patriotic Front and ABV.

Earlier in April the legislature adopted changes to the Election Code making voting mandatory, banning simultaneous conduct of referendums and national elections, legislating against the creation of an "Abroad" constituency in parliamentary elections and limiting overseas voting only to embassies and consulates, among other changes. The revisions passed on the votes of GERB, the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Patriotic Front. the Reformist Bloc voted against most revisions and ABV were opposed to some of them. More changes to the Elections Code are due to be put to a vote this week.

The changes triggered an outcry among expatriate Bulgarians and they have created a petition on Internet protesting the refusal of the legislators to create an "Abroad" constituency and the scrapping of legal provisions allowing the opening of voting stations outside the Bulgarian embassies and consulates.

The petitioners propose that electronic voting be allowed and made possible for expatriate Bulgarians on time for the presidential elections later this year. They argue that leaving the latest changes in the Elections Code as they are will mean that some 80,000 Bulgarians abroad will be unable to vote.

The petition was supported by 4,400 as of Monday noon.

The Bulgarian news media report of protests by Bulgarians outside the diplomatic representations of this country in the UK and Belgium.

Commenting the outrage among Bulgarians abroad, Patriotic Front co-leader Valeri Simeonov, whose party proposed the restriction for voting only in embassies and consulates, said his appeal to Bulgarians abroad is to be patriots. He argued that experience has shown that overseas voting so far has invariably benefited the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

He also explained that voting will be mandatory only for those expatriate Bulgarians who live within a scope of 20 km from the voting section in the nearest embassy or consulate.