ABV Backs President's Proposal for Referendum on Election Law

Chairperson of the parliamentary group of Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) Borislav Borisov.

ABV, one of the parties supporting the coalition government, expressed its complete agreement with the proposal of Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev for holding a referendum on electoral rules.

Plevneliev proposed relaunching the efforts on the initiation of a referendum with three questions - compulsory voting, electronic voting and majority voting, which could be held with the forthcoming local elections in the autumn.

ABV's position was announced by the chairperson of its parliamentary group Borislav Borisov, following the meeting between representatives of the party and the president, daily Dnevnik reports.

The meeting was part of the Head of State's initiative “month of political consultations” with the parliamentary represented parties, which was unveiled on Monday.

According to ABV, the introduction of compulsory voting has one unchallenged advantage – limitation of corporate voting and vote buying.

The party supports the introduction of a mixed system, which combines 50 % proportional representation with preferential voting and 50 % majority voting.

ABV called for increasing the threshold for preferential voting, especially for local elections.

At the consultations with the president, the parties will discuss their priorities for 2015.

The Head of State is seeking the positions of the parties on five main topics: key reforms on the agenda for 2015; referendum and electoral legislation; international and regional security; defence and armed forces; crises and natural disasters.

According to ABV, the reform of the judiciary is the key reform, which can not be complete and effective without amendments to the constitution.

Amendments to the constitution should also include extension of the powers of the presidential institution, such as opportunities for legislative initiative and initiation of referendum.

ABV advised the president to include three points on the agenda when the consultative council for national security is convened next.

The first point concerns Bulgaria's more active participation in the peace process between Ukraine and Russia, which has been initiated following the second Minsk ceasefire agreement.

ABV calls for Bulgaria to review its attitude on the sanctions imposed against Russia and identifying measures for the development of economic cooperation with Ukraine and Russia.

The second point proposed by ABV is the review of the energy strategy, researching opportunities for relaunching work on the large energy projects and restoring Bulgaria's status of an energy centre of the Balkans rather than a territory bypassed by all energy projects.

The problem with the demographic crisis is the third point that ABV proposes for inclusion at one of the next sittings of the consultative council for national security.

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