BULGARIA’S PARLIAMENT ADOPTED GERB’S PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES TO REFERENDUM ACT

On 4th of June, Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted, at first reading, the amendments to the referendum act enabling Bulgarians abroad to vote in referenda, as well as referenda to be held at the same time as local elections. The amendments were proposed by ruling center-right party GERB.

A disputes arose regarding the proposal of the Bulgarian President for holding a referendum on changes to the voting rules along with the local elections on 25th of October, which he tabled in Parliament on 3rd of June.

The centre-left opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party suggested the President to withdraw his proposal for a national referendum and table it again after 17th of June because the law requires one year to have passed before tabling a new proposal. They reminded that on 17th of June 2014, the 42nd National Assembly rejected the previous proposal for a referendum on the same topics.

However the ruling party GERB said that there was no violation of the law because the previous referendum was initiated through a petition signed by citizens, while this one was initiated by the President.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms said they were against the compulsory voting.

Some political parties said they would make their proposals as to how to formulate the questions for the referendum.