site.btaForeign Ministry Proposes Expatriate Voting by Postal Mail and Setting Up Overseas Constituency

Sofia, July 23 (BTA) - The Foreign Ministry will move amendments
 to election legislation to introduce expatriate voting by
postal mail in Bulgarian political elections, require advance
registration of Bulgarians willing to vote abroad, and set up an
 overseas constituency election commission, Foreign Minister
Svetlan Stoev told a briefing on Friday.

"For the first time, the Foreign Ministry was not criticized for
 failing to discharge its duties concerning overseas voting,"
Stoev said in connection with the July 11 early parliamentary
elections. "Fears that voting abroad would be nontransparent did
 not materialize," he added. According to Foreign Ministry
Permanent Secretary Ivan Kondov, head of the ministry's
Elections Working Group (EWG), amendments to election
legislation facilitated the voting of Bulgarians abroad by
eliminating the problem with long waiting time, but created
organizational difficulties.

As many as 782 voting sections were set up abroad for the July
11 snap elections, compared with just 484 for the April 4
regular parliamentary elections. Sections in a total of 68
countries served 173,843 expatriate voters, 4 per cent down from
 April, EWG's Kalin Anastassov said.

Bulgarians abroad chose to use machines to cast their vote,
Anastassov said. According to Kondov, 129,280 people were added
to voters lists on polling day, which was a very large number
that caused difficulties to the election commissions. Active
registration could be the solution to this problem, Kondov
suggested. Twenty-five thousand expatriates who got registered
to vote in the elections did not turn up eventually, Anastassov
said, adding that the reasons are yet to be analyzed.

The Foreign Ministry predicted that more sections will be set up
 abroad for the Bulgarian presidential elections this autumn.
NV/VE