site.btaMPs Adopt on First Reading Introduction of Compulsory Voting, Shorter Election Campaign

MPs Adopt on First Reading Introduction of Compulsory Voting,Shorter Election Campaign

Sofia, March 10 (BTA) - The introduction of compulsory voting, the establishment of an "Abroad" electoral constituency for general elections, and a shorter election campaign were among the draft changes to the Election Code that Parliament adopted on first reading Thursday. The MPs supported 11 out of 14 bills to amend the Election Code.

The adopted revisions introduce compulsory voting and list sanctions for this obligation's violation. They also establish a 32nd multi-member constituency "Abroad" for general elections, allowing Bulgarians abroad to vote for party lists with preferences, and not only for a party or coalition. The MPs also decided to reduce the election campaign's period from 30 to 21 days. The election day will begin at 7 instead of 6 a.m., and will end at 8 instead of 7 p.m.

The first-reading amendments also: optimize the processing of votes in the elections by introducing machine counting and increasing the number of members at the constituency election commissions and district election commissions; envisage a higher number of polling districts with machine voting; establish a commission for remote e-voting, which is planned to be introduced two years after the bill's publishing; ban the election campaigning by representatives of religious denominations; envisage an active registration of voters once in 10 years and electoral registers' update; remove the numbering of political parties in the ballot papers; and allow persons with prison sentences for non-serious crimes and those placed under limited interdiction to vote.

Under the first-reading revisions, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has to adopt rules for the Election Code's implementation. The CEC statute is upgraded and its composition can be increased with additional members  when, following elections for MPs or MEPs, there are new parliamentary represented parties and coalitions.

The National Assembly rejected proposals for allowing the use of a language other than Bulgarian during the election campaign, and for introducing a minimum educational qualification for voting.

Explaining why he voted against one of the bills, Chetin Kazak (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) said that the text introducing compulsory voting is anti-constitutional. "If this proposal remains in the final version of the bill, you can be sure that the Constitutional Court will revoke it," he noted.

The Bulgarian Socialist Part is also against the introduction of compulsory voting, MP Chavdar Georgiev said, specifying that his party is in favour of defending citizen's free choice whether to cast their vote or not.

Patriotic Front Floor Leader Valeri Simeonov said that compulsory voting does not infringe on the constitutional rights. The proposal for its introduction was sponsored independently by the Patriotic Front and Ataka as a way to increase the elected bodies' legitimacy, engage the entire society in the elections and give a meaning to the term "democracy". Compulsory voting will eliminate the possibility of  a small, marginal group determining the election results, Simeonov said.

Addressing Parliament, the Reformist Bloc defended the idea of introducing machine counting of ballot papers as a transit stage to machine and electronic voting.