By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Vesco Paskalev

 

On 28 July the National Assembly approved a proposal of the President for referendum on the introduction of electronic voting in all elections. The referendum will be held along with the local elections on 25 October 2015.

The initiative for a referendum on electoral reform is from 2013 and originally included two more questions – on the introduction of a majoritarian element in the electoral system and making the voting compulsory . All three proposals were meant to address the dramatic decrease of turnout and the general frustration of the citizens with the electoral process which is perceived as increasingly corrupt and meaningless. After the parliament at the time turned down the President’s proposal, about half a million citizens signed a petition in support of it, thus obliging Parliament to hold a referendum. Parliament dragged its feet, and was soon dissolved anyway but the President introduced the same proposal earlier this year. Even though the majority has changed, and many of the ministers have been outspoken supporters, two of the three proposed questions were defeated again. The one which was adopted is mainly meant to enable the diaspora to exercise their vote. In the last 25 years the population decreased from 9 to 7 million, mostly due to emigration.

Read the news reports on the Bulgarian national TV and in the Sofia Globe (in English) as well as Mediapool and Dnevnik (in Bulgarian). 

Read an analysis of the (initial) proposal by Vesco Paskalev, Politics of Franchise, Politics of Referenda, and access the National Assembly decision (full text, in Bulgarian).