site.btaParliament Overrides President's Veto of Election Code Amendments

108 POLITICS - ELECTION CODE - VETO - OVERRIDDEN

Parliament Overrides
President's Veto
of Election Code Amendments


Sofia, March 6 (BTA) - The ruling majority on Wednesday overrode President Rumen Radev's veto of recent amendments to the Election Code. The amended law will be sent to the President to decree its promulgation in the State Gazette within seven days from now, National Assembly Chair Tsveta Karayancheva said. A total of 154 MPs voted against the veto. The BSP For Bulgaria parliamentary group is boycotting the parliamentary sittings.

The rejection of the veto was expected after the National Assembly's Legal Affairs Committee overturned it on Tuesday by 14 votes against.

Radev imposed the veto partly because he objected to raising the preference voting threshold which would practically rob preference voting of its meaning. Preference voting allows voters to mark their preference for a candidate on a party ticket and thus improve his or her chances of being elected. Radev also had objections about the limitation of machine voting and other provisions. His arguments were divided into five groups.

The controversial amendments to the Election Code were adopted on February 15 to weaken the weight of preference voting, delay the phasing out of paper ballots and their replacement by machine voting, and reduce the opportunities for contesting election results before a court of law. The changes triggered a public controversy and became one of the reasons for BSP for Bulgaria's current boycott of the parliamentary sittings. Three days after the amendments' adoption, the ruling GERB changed their mind and said they would reinstate the old preference voting rules. They started the usual legislative procedure towards that but the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee said it would wait to see the President's position.

The Election Code saga comes ahead of the European elections in May and Bulgarian local elections in the autumn.

On Wednesday, Hamid Hamid MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) said his parliamentary group will submit its own bill to amend the Election Code.

BSP leader Kornelia Ninova said the overriding of the presidential veto was the result of a deal between GERB, MRF and the United Patriots. Speaking at BSP headquarters, Ninova said: "The price of the deal can be seen on Friday, just check out Parliament's agenda. A Religious Faiths Bill is number one on the agenda." She predicted that by helping to get the Religious Faiths Bill through, GERB will write off a debt of the Grand Mufti's Office to the State.

The Grand Mufti's Office is said to owe millions of leva in overdue corporate income tax, wages, and health and social insurance contributions.

This, according to Ninova, proves that "the BSP is right to stay out of the status-quo and those behind-the-scenes dealings." The BSP continues its talks with extra-parliamentary parties for establishing "a united front for transparent and fair elections," she said. LY/VE


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