Bulgaria's Parliament Postpones Change in Electoral System

Lawmakers have voted to drop out of their agenda a bill foreseeing amendments to Bulgaria's electoral system, in line with a referendum held in November.

The move has been backed by a majority of 90 to 76 lawmakers, with three abstentions, news website Dnenvik.bg has said.

No further date has been set for the item to be restored onto the agenda.

Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) lawmaker Chetin Kazak, having proposed the step, has argued Parliament will not have time to debate on and adopt the bill in all necessary readings.

The legislature has to be dissolved after Rumen Radev is sworn in as President of Bulgaria on January 22. Radev on Tuesday declined requests to prolong the life of the current Parliament and thus give it time to carry the changes through, saying MPs already had two months to submit a bill and vote on it.

Earlier this week, MPs from GERB party of outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said they had tabled the bill with the Legal Affairs Committee, which was to clear it before it went to Parliament's floor.

However, the committee failed to pass the text on Tuesday.

In November, in a referendum on a switch to a first-past-the-post electoral system, a cut in state subsidies to political parties, and a move to make voting and referenda compulsory, more than 2.5 million people said "yes" to all three issues.

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