The legislative framework and concept of the upcoming changes to the Electoral Law were discussed on December 19, 2009 at a meeting in the the National Assembly, organized by PG GERB. The forum was attended by MPs from all parliamentary groups, state officials, representatives of political forces not currently in parliament and NGOs.

“By the end of June next year the new Election Code should be ready, as well as amendments to the legislation relevant to elections such as the Political Parties Act, the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code", the co-chair of PG GERB and Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs Iskra Fidosova said.

The participants in the forum agreed to reach a consensus on the political base of the draft Electoral Code by February 10, 2010. Next week the NA will elect 2 members of each parliamentary group to form a working group, which is to lay out the policy framework of the new code.

Iskra Fidosova added that one of the first things that should be done was to formulate questions on certain provisions of the Constitution, concerning electoral law that allow for an ambiguous interpretation and ask the Constitutional Court to rule on these issues. She explained that the constitutional judges will help the deputies not to wander into whether they are on the border of unconstitutional in drafting the Code and the changes to election laws.

She also mentioned the need to draw a time-table for the preparation and adoption of the legal framework and parameters of the Code and changes to other laws, related to the electoral process.

The other topics discussed at the meeting were the type of electoral system which will best suit the country, the electronic voting, the mandatory voting, the increase of penalties for vote buying, the establishment of a permanent electoral administration, the transparency of the electoral process, its financing, etc.