site.btaCC Leader Addresses Parliament for Over an Hour on Voting Abroad, Detailing Potential Loss of Voting Rights

Continue the Change leader Assen Vassilev Thursday spent more than an hour speaking from Parliament’s rostrum about voting abroad, offering a breakdown of data by polling station and outlining how many Bulgarian citizens could be deprived of their right to vote if Vazrazhdane's Election Code amendments were adopted. 

The proposed amendments would limit the number of polling stations outside Bulgarian diplomatic and consular missions in non-EU countries to a maximum of 20.

For one hour and 20 minutes, Vassilev presented data on the distribution of votes cast for political parties in each of the 112 polling stations in the United Kingdom during the previous parliamentary elections, before moving on to similar data from the United States. He accused GERB, Vazrazhdane, BSP, and There Is Such a People of seeking to strip Bulgarian citizens abroad of their right to vote. At the beginning of his address, Vassilev said that he intended to comment on every paragraph and proposal, estimating that his remarks would take approximately 80 minutes.

Tsvetana Rangelova of Vazrazhdane said: "You spoke for an hour and 20 minutes without saying anything new. No one is depriving anyone of anything," adding that limiting the number of polling stations does not amount to disenfranchisement.

Aleksandar Ivanov of GERB–UDF accused Vassilev of a serious violation of parliamentary rules. In Ivanov's words, Vassilev put on "a performance, a circus." "For more than an hour, he acted as a spokesperson for the Central Election Commission and added nothing to the debate," Ivanov said, calling on Vassilev to apologize to both those present in the debating chamber and Bulgarian citizens.