New electoral code under discussion
MPs, experts and NGOs gathered to discuss the ammendments of Bulgarian Electoral Code in a open table in Bulgaria's parliament National ombudsman Konstantin Penchev opened the discussion.
Some of their proposals included incriminating the act of faking voting lists, campaign informing citizens how and on what grounds they can submit complaints, free of charge time slots for political campaign ads in public media, reinstating the preferential vote with zero limitation, and also possible reducing of the number of signatures required to register independent candidates.
Borislav Tsekov from The Institute for Modern Policy presented their idea for party lists' vote, but with preferantial changes. Prof. Emilia Drumeva, former Constitutional court judge and prof. Mihail Konstantinov suggested the adoption of the German electoral system, which gives the voters the opportunity to have two votes - one for party lists and one for persons.
Renowned Bulgarian journaists and former 24 chasa editor-in-chief Valeri Naidenov insists on the adoption of a brand new law implementing the majority vote. He said that when there is a 51 percent barrier of the votes for electing a MP then Bulgaria's long-standing problem of controlled and bought votes will cease to exist. 'If it is accepted by the lawmakers, those candidates who are buying 2-3 percent of the votes will lose their money, and there will be no reason to go on with this malpractice.'
'Over 70% of the texts in the Election Code must be altered and rewritten,' the deputy speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Maya Manolova told the audience. She assured that all proposals will be summarized and will be included in the legislative debate.
Source: http://bg-daily-news.eu/
(03.07.2013)