The ad hoc parliamentary committee in charge of drafting the new Election Code has elected unanimously the members of the Citizens Council that will work together with the committee. The body consists of 28 members, representatives of civic organizations and will be headed by Prof. Emilia Drumeva, member of the organization “Civil Board for Transparent and Free Elections”. The Council will have two deputy chairmen -   Prof. Mihail Mirchev from the Citizens’ Initiative for Free and Democratic Elections (CIFDE) and Dimitar Dimitrov –professor at the University of Sofia “St Kliment Ohridski”. The latter is expert on the subject of electoral systems.

The Chairwoman of the Ad hoc Committee charged with holding the consultations and the debate on the new code draft, Maya Manolova, explained how the members of the Citizens Council were chosen. They are people who have become known with their opinions and they have different political orientations.  Some of them are proven experts, who were sitting on the former Council and have drafted the current Election Code, as is Prof. Emilia Drumeva, expert in the field, who had worked previously with two different governments.

The other members come from such organizations as the Association for Civic Control , the Council for Electronic Communications, the Bulgarian National Radio, the Association of Bulgarians Abroad, the Bulgarian National Television, the National Audit Office, the Active Bulgarians in a Civil State Association, the Bulgarian Media Union, the Bulgarian Association of Electoral Systems, the European Society for Defense of Human Rights, the Institute of  Modern Politics, the New Alternative Association, the Institute for Social Integration, the Citizen’s Initiative for Free and Democratic Elections, the Association of Journalists against Corruption, the Equal before the Law Civic Committee , the National Association of Municipal Secretaries, the Association of Bulgarian Radio and Television Operators, the Bulgarian Association for Honest Elections and Civil Rights, experts from Municipal Civil Registration and Administrative Services departments.
The committee has adopted Internal Rules to be applied in its work.

The sitting of the Citizen’s Council is to take place at 2 pm on Wednesday, while the sitting of the ad-hoc committee is scheduled on Friday.