The Ad hoc Committee set up for consideration and adoption of new Election Code has approved the draft submitted by Maya Manolova and a group of MPs from the Coalition for Bulgaria at a sitting held on 17 January 2014 with 7 “yes” votes and 3 abstentions.

The members of the committee have rejected the Bill on amendment and supplementation of the Election Code moved by Andon Andonov and a group of MPs from the PP GERB. 3 votes were in favor of the bill, 3 were against and there were 3 abstentions. The draft will be submitted to the plenary for consideration at first reading next week.

Emiliya Maslarova, head of the Citizens Council, chosen to work with the Ad hoc committee said the Council had rejected the bill proposing to amend and supplement the existing election code, submitted by deputies from GERB arguing that partial amendments won’t answer the demands of society for setting new rules for elections.

The Citizens Council working with the Ad hoc committee has approved in principle the draft proposed by the Coalition for Bulgaria representatives with some comments.

Maya Manolova presented the draft on behalf of the Coalition for Bulgaria. The draft suggests for the first time preferential vote for election of people’s representatives and municipal councils. The threshold is low enough to motivate people to participate more actively. The draft introduces machine voting that will limit the vote manipulation. The ballot papers will be printed by the National Bank of Bulgaria and will ensure the Ministry of Finance and the Central Electoral Commission’s (SEC) strict control. The draft proposes new rules about the CEC – namely to establish the commission as a professional and permanent body. The decisions of all electoral commissions will be controlled by the Court. The SEC will maintain an archive containing all the protocols of the commission’s sittings.

According to Maya Manolova the most complicated matter will be to delete from the lists illegitimate voters. With this rational in mind, the movers propose the initiation of gradual active registration.

The new Election Code draft foresees a lot of amendments that ease the voting abroad and of people with disabilities. For the first time the methodology describing how the votes are counted will be incorporated into the Code itself. Maya Manolova announced that more than 150 proposals of NGOs are included in the text. Tsetska Tsacheva, Deputy Chair of the GERB PG said the setting of new election rules each time a new majority takes over in the parliament could be very dangerous. She presented the proposed by her parliamentary group amendments to the existing election code. The GERB party proposes the introduction of preferential voting with 5% threshold and electoral threshold of 3%, as well as lower deposit amount for participation in elections.

Mustafa Karaduya, member of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms PG was firm that society needs new election code, setting such rules that will give society trust in the election results. Dressing correct lists of voters in his view is the most important issue in the election process.

Pavel Shopov from Ataka shared Karadayu’s opinion that the most important task of the new code would be to stop the manipulation and fraud with votes. On behalf of his party he insisted a mandatory system of voting to be initiated.  He also pleaded in favor of widening the scope of the "principal domicile" principle in order to stop the electoral tourism and to preserving campaigning in Bulgarian language only.