BULGARIA’S MPS SUPPORTED HOLDING A REFERENDUM PROPOSED BY THE TEAM OF A TV SHOW HOST SLAVI TRIFONOV

After two hours of debates on 12th of May, Bulgaria’s Parliament approved the 6 questions for a national referendum, which was proposed by the team of a TV talk show host Slavi Trifonov.

131 MPs voted in favour, 18 voted against and one abstained.The parliamentary group of the liberal “Movement for Rights and Freedoms” (MRF) voted against, as well as one representative of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and one from the centre-right Reformist bloc. The nationalist Ataka party did not take part in the voting.

The MPs decided the plebiscite to include the questions about holding of parliamentary elections based on majority voting system with an absolute majority in two rounds; reduction of the number of MPs to 120 (from 240); introduction of compulsory and electronic voting at elections and referendums; reduction of the subsidies for the political parties to 1 BGN per each vote received. The sixth question is related to the majority-rule election of heads of district directorates of the Ministry of Interior and heads of regional police stations.

The MRF, Ataka party and the left –wing BSP said in the plenary hall that some of the questions contradicted the constitution. The question for reducing the number of MPs caused the most heated discussion.

The proposal for the referendum was submitted to the Bulgarian Parliament in February 2016 after being initiated by a television show host Slavi Trifonov.