Parliament Rejects Amendments Facilitating Referendums on First Reading

Nikolay Zabov

TISP's Stanislav Balabanov in Parliament on November 9, 2023 (BTA photo)

Sofia,

09.11.2023 13:27

(BTA)

The National Assembly did not adopt amendments to the Direct Participation of Citizens in State Authorities and Local Self-Government Act on first reading here on Thursday. The proposals of There Is Such a People (TISP), which aimed to facilitate referendums, received the support only of Vazrazhdane and the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

The proposed amendments included the abolishment of the currently required minimum number of participants in a referendum vote; having referendums held during elections only; reducing the number of signatures required for a binding referendum from 400,000 to 200,000; reducing the number of signatures required for a question to be allowed for debating in Parliament from 200,000 to 100,000; and increasing the time limit for collecting signatures from three to five months.

After the bill was defeated, TISP's Stanislav Balabanov, one of the sponsors, said it was clear that the assemblage does not care about the Bulgarian people. He said that this vote should have been non-partisan, because it concerns every Bulgarian citizen's democratic right to vote.

/PP/