Bulgaria's Constitutional Court Abolishes Compulsory Voting

Bulgaria’s Constitutional court has abolished unanimously compulsory voting, reported Praven Svyat. The decision was adopted with 11 votes “for” since Anastas Anastasov was absent from the meeting on Thursday.

The decision overrules the entire text of Art. 242  para.A which entered into force on May 25, 2016. The text stipulates that a person who has not voted, without a valid reason, in two consecutive elections of the same kind will be erased from the electoral list for the next elections.

The arguments of the CC will become clear next week. It was Ombudsman Maya Manolova who referred the court with a request to abolish compulsory voting.

Manolova pointed out that the right to vote is a subjective right and not a public function of the citizen that entails an obligation to vote.

Besides, Manolova specified that the Constitution provides for the law to settle merely the organisation and the regulations for holding elections but not the conditions under which the right to vote is to be exercised.

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