Bulgaria Parliament Rejects Electronic Voting

The majority in the Bulgarian Parliament voted Wednesday on several changes in the Election Act. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency.

The majority in the Bulgarian Parliament rejected Wednesday the idea of introducing electronic voting in 2010.

The idea belongs to the Bulgarian opposition, but one of the currently ruling parties and member of the tri-party coalition - National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) was in favor of the idea. The NMSP votes, however, proved insufficient to carry the electronic voting proposal.

The remaining ruling parties - the Bulgarian Socialists Party (BSP) and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) did not buy into the arguments of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) that the electronic voting would increase voters' activity.

The majority did approve the BSP project providing for the introduction of a mixed voting system and the election of 58 Members of the Parliament (MPs) by a majority vote despite their coalition partner's, DPS, objections during the Tuesday debates that this was a Socialists infatuation and 31 majority elected MPs would be more than sufficient.

Another project, receiving approval Wednesday was the reduction of the election campaign to three weeks and the annulment of the so-called "Day for Reflection."