Bulgarians Abroad Overwhelmingly Vote “Yes” in E-Voting Referendum

The ballot paper used for voting in the referendum on remote electronic voting. Photo: BGNES

Bulgarians living abroad overwhelmingly voted “yes” in the referendum on the introduction of remote electronic voting, which was held simultaneously with the local elections on Sunday.

With 98.3 % of the ballots processed, the figures show that 92.06 % of the votes were in favour of the introduction of remote electronic voting, while only 7.94 % were against.

Bulgarians living abroad were allowed to vote for the first time in a referendum, while their fellow nationals residing in the country could vote both in the local elections and the referendum.

The Central Election Commission (CIK) has not yet provided more recent figures on the voter turnout in the referendum and the local elections.

The latest figures available on the website of CIK are as of 17:00 EET on Sunday, which show that voter turnout in the referendum was 31.5 %, while that in the local elections stood at 43.2 %.

According to these figures, 71.96 % of the votes cast in the referendum were in favour of the introduction of remote electronic voting, while 28.04 % were against.

As the voter turnout surpassed the 20 % threshold, this will oblige the parliament to review the question posed in the referendum and deliver a opinion within three months.

CIK continues to be experiencing difficulties with processing the figures on voter turnout after its website had been hacked on Sunday which necessitated the collection of data over the phone.

Meanwhile, a chaos has ensued with the processing of ballot papers in the Arena Armeec sports hall in Sofia.

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