/View.info/ For a 14-hour session “in sin”:
The MPs completely messed up the election rules, they are asking for a veto from Radev. He released them in a flash
Machines mandatory, but not everywhere
District “Foreign” both accepted and for other elections
Voting abroad will be free, but in embassies
There will be no postal or internet voting
They canceled the proportional system, but there is no majoritarian system
After 2 p.m., a meeting of the deputies and a speedy signature by Rumen Radev
Confused election rules that both make overseas voting free and restrict it, introduce video surveillance and ban it, make voting 100% machine-based but not everywhere, abolish the proportional system but not introduce another, MPs created in a 14-hour session until almost midnight in Thursday. At the same time, “in a sin”, as Lyuben Dilov noted – after 6 p.m. it is already Good Friday, he explained to his colleagues and insisted that the vote on the last texts of the Electoral Code be postponed. The proposal of the deputy from GERB was rejected.
We will find out what we have voted for when it is published in the “State Gazette”, shared MPs from all parties, totally lost in the amendments pushed through in 3 days – the legal committee will consider them on Tuesday.
“I hope the president imposes a veto and immediately dissolves this parliament so that we cannot reject it. This is the only chance that this law will not appear in the “State Gazette”. Because I will be ashamed of this monument of political weakness and legal illiteracy”, announced lawyer Radomir Cholakov from GERB-SDS.
However, Rumen Radev released the changes in the code in a flash. They will be published in an extraordinary issue of the “State Gazette” on May 1. The resigned Minister of Justice Desislava
Akhladova was
called by
the presidency
at 7.45 on the weekend
friday,
to place the state seal under the presidential decree. This means that the administration of the parliament and that of Radev had less than 8 hours to prepare the final version of the adopted texts and for the head of state to get acquainted with them.
A rumor circulated in the political circles yesterday that the rush is so that on May 5 the parliament can adopt quick amendments to the mistaken texts.
Otherwise, with the speedy promulgation of the changes, Radev can
as early as May 15
to fire
the current CEC
and to appoint a new one – the deadline set by the amendments for this is 14 days after the publication of the code in the “State Gazette”. It preserves the quotas of the parties, but the appointment is made by the president “after public consultations”. Until now, the chairman of the commission and his deputies were elected by the parliament, the rest were appointed by the president. The parties that have MEPs but have not passed the 4% barrier to enter the National Assembly will lose their seats in the new CEC. In this case it is VMRO.
“There is no majority vote in this law, electronic voting and by mail, there will be machine voting somewhere, but not elsewhere. We adopted only one new CEC, in whose place I would not want to be if I had to organize elections according to these texts”, Cholakov also stated.
At least 30 minutes after the official end of the meeting, MPs and journalists were asking each other on the sidelines who knew what had been passed and who was not quite sure.
“We accept one text, then cancel related to it. Or we refuse one change, but vote for another, which is related”, summed up the lawyer from BSP Krum Zarkov.
Chaos broke out at the start of Thursday morning’s meeting. In the 2nd and 4th paragraphs of the changes, the deputies left the text that voting abroad is only in sections on the territory of embassies and consulates. And a little later they removed the restriction in non-EU countries to reveal no more than 35 sections (which was followed by chanting “Bravo” from the whole hall without the GERB and BSP groups).
The confusion was noticed by people’s representatives, but it was never corrected.
“I hope it will be
considered for
editorial
mistake
and be corrected in the texts that the administration will submit to the “State Gazette”, the leader of “Democratic Bulgaria” Hristo Ivanov expressed hope on the sidelines.
The long-promised Chuzhbina district will also not come into effect for the upcoming early elections in July. Its creation was initially approved, but the chamber subsequently rejected the methodology by which mandates are allocated to it.
There were two proposals in the draft law – “There is such a people” provided for 13 deputies to broadcast their votes from abroad, and according to Maya Manolova’s methodology, the mandates should be at least 4. However, both were blocked with procedural gripes by the Speaker of the Parliament Iva Miteva. which is also the importer of one. “In two words, there will be no “Chuzbina” electoral district”, exclaimed in response the deputy head of the National Assembly Tatyana Doncheva, who led the meeting. The so-called created
“Foreign” district
there won’t be
separate sheet
But it was also accepted that Bulgarians outside should note preferences.
Shortly before that, GERB made a remark to “There is such a people” and BSP that too many of the texts will be valid, if possible. “There is no law that applies when possible,” explained Radomir Cholakov. He gave the occasion for a text to introduce video surveillance during the counting of the ballots in the sections and broadcast it on an Internet site, if possible. In the end, the text was rejected because it was proposed by the BSP. But at the expense of this it was allowed
counting
to be recorded
with phones
by the advocates of the parties and to be streamed on the Internet. However, it was agreed that the government would pay for the video surveillance equipment in the sections, and the CEC would determine the terms and conditions for it.
However, it was not clear what exactly will be counted, since in nearly 9,400 out of 12,000 sections in the country, voting will be by machine only. And the MPs rejected the proposal in at least 5% of the SIC in each region to have a control count of the paper receipts from the machine vote to see if they match the protocol generated by the device.
In fact, the machine voting was not introduced 100% because the deputies left a number of exceptions. The vote will be only on paper in the sections with less than 300 voters both in the country and abroad, in hospitals, at mobile ballot boxes, etc.
The long-promised changes to introduce electronic remote voting and vote by mail for Bulgarians in countries where this is the practice were also rejected.
However, the finale of the marathon session was the most heated – the transitional and final provisions in the code. A paragraph proposed by ITN provided for the abolition of the proportional electoral system from the next regular elections, but without saying what replaced it – majoritarian in two rounds, in one round, mixed or something else.
“Now it will become clear who is in favor of majority elections, after the GERB voted against in a committee”, the deputy head of the ITN Toshko Yordanov set the tone for the debate, which went into a row. Then the cancellation should be done immediately, replied the head of the GERB group, Desislava Atanasova.
The next elections will be early and there is no time to change the electoral system, Yordanov replied. And rejected Atanasova’s request: “Don’t act stupid – you either vote for this proposal or you don’t.”
“Don’t bully”, Dimitar Glavchev from GERB replied to him. Your leader Stanislav Trifonov announced in 2019 that you are entering politics to implement the ideas of your referendum. Show that there is a meaning to your existence, he addressed ITN.
Zoning cannot be done in one day, counters Yordanov.
Krum Zarkov from BSP tried to bring some sense into the conversation, who described the debate as lying and sabotage by the two parties supporting majority voting.
“The proposed
text is one
fiction
and neither voting for him nor not voting will change anything”, supported Atanas Slavov from DB.
GERB, however, recalled that “Slavi’s Show” has a ready-made majority zoning since 2016 and requested that it be implemented in a new vote in July. It should be noted in the text that a majoritarian system is being introduced, not just any kind, said Rositsa Kirova from GERB, former coordinator of Slavi’s party.
At the end, Hamid Hamid from DPS asked that the text not be voted on at all, because it was introduced between the first and second reading. This sincerely surprised Tatyana Doncheva, who was leading the meeting.
“Well, because you had lunch
the frog here
20 years?”,
she scolded
the chairwoman
of National Assembly Iva Miteva, after receiving confirmation from her that the text was submitted in violation of the rules. Miteva is a former director of the legal directorate of the National Assembly.
“I will not put legislative balancing acts to a vote,” Doncheva was categorical. This decision prompted a request for a 10-minute break, after which Christian Vigenin took the chair. He put the repeal of the proportional system to a vote and it was approved with the support of 125 deputies from GERB and “There is such a people”.
A little later, after an argument with Maya Manolova about whether to give her the floor, Vigenin announced the law as adopted and ended the meeting, which began at 9 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m.
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