The legal commission accepted with 12 votes "for" and 11 "against" the proposal of GERB-SDS not to have a multi-mandate electoral district outside the country.

This happened at a meeting where changes to the Electoral Code, as well as proposals submitted between the two readings, are considered in the second reading.

The changes discussed in the legal committee will be considered in the plenary hall.

Nadezhda Yordanova from "Democratic Bulgaria" defined the proposal for the so-called

district "Foreign" as "another step back in the wrong direction, which is not in favor of fair elections".

And he noted that when there is no such constituency, Bulgarian citizens abroad cannot exercise a preferential vote.

For his part, Hamid Hamid from DPS commented that there is no methodology to determine how many mandates and from where they will be taken to be given to the "Foreign" region.

According to him, there are about 2 million Bulgarians outside the country, which makes nearly 80 mandates.

Asen Vasil from "Prodlužavame Promyanata" answered that there are two approaches – to use as a base the people who voted in the last elections abroad, or to use data from the Ministry of the Interior about those who left the country.

The GERB-SDS stated as a reason for the change that when there is no readiness to introduce a given change, it should be considered more carefully and thoroughly.

The legal committee meeting began at 2:30 p.m.

The change to mixed voting – by paper ballot and machine – was confirmed at second reading.

However, 100 applications are needed to open a section for voting abroad, and not 40 as before. The Commission accepted the proposal of "Vazrazhdane" to change the structure of the CEC to reflect proportionally the distribution of political parties in the parliament and to be in a composition of 25 people.  

IRPS: Proposals for changes in the IC are introduced spontaneously, without serious public support and detailed justification

The committee meeting began at 2:30 p.m. and continues to date.

The report with the proposals submitted between the first and second reading for changes to the Electoral Code is 67 pages long.

voting abroad