site.btaMPs Vote Down Revisions to Referendums Act Proposed by Vazrazhdane

The National Assembly voted down on first reading amendments to the Direct Citizen Participation in State and Local Government Act by a vote of 67 in favour, 20 against and 100 abstentions. The provisions proposed by Vazrazhdane aimed to facilitate the procedure for initiating and holding referendums and removing the participation requirements. GERB-UDF, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms voted against while the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such a People supported the proposal.

One of the amendments in the bill envisaged that any registered parliamentary group could make a proposal to the National Assembly to hold a national referendum. Currently, such a motion requires a quorum of at least one-fifth of all MPs.

Vazrazhdane also proposed that the number of signatures required for an initiative committee to request a referendum to be reduced from 200,000 to 50,000.

Moreover, Vazrazhdane requested a change to the provision that Parliament must adopt a decision to hold a national referendum when this is requested by an initiative committee with a petition containing no less than 400 000 signatures and the proposal does not contravene legal restrictions. The party asked for the number of signatures to be reduced to 100,000 and the requirement not to contradict the restrictions to be deleted.

Vazrazhdane’s leader Kostadin Kostadinov argued that the reluctance to change the law shows a "great fear of the people".

CC-DB MP Yavor Bozhankov said that because of the motives, the quality of the bill and the proposals, it can be concluded that this would serve as an instrument that does not actually aim to consult the opinion of the people but has a completely different purpose. "The whole campaign for the parliamentary elections of this populist pro-Russian formation was built on the referendum," Bozhankov said.