site.btaUPDATED Parliament Slashes Number of Polling Stations in Non-EU Countries

Parliament Thursday conclusively adopted amendments to the Election Code that slash the number of polling stations for Bulgarian elections in countries outside the EU. Proposed by Vazrazhdane, the revisions say that the polling stations set up outside Bulgarian diplomatic and consular missions in countries that are not members of the EU may not be more than 20.

Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) proposed that the number of such polling stations be capped at 100, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms at 70, and GERB-UDF at 30, but all three proposals were rejected in the plenary hall.

With 117 votes in favor, 82 against, and 10 abstentions, Parliament adopted the original proposal put forward by Vazrazhdane, setting the limit at 20 polling stations. Lawmakers also decided that polling stations outside diplomatic or consular missions will be established on the basis of at least 40 applications by voters. 

The revisions will have much consequence for voting in Bulgarian elections in Turkiye, the UK and US, which are the countries outside the EU with the largest Bulgarian communities. At the latest Bulgarian parliamentary elections, in 2024, there were 168 polling stations in Turkiye, 112 in the UK and 53 in the US, according to data on the Central Election Commission website.

During the parliamentary debate, Continue the Change leader Assen Vassilev spoke for an hour and 20 minutes 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. He accused GERB, Vazrazhdane, BSP - United Left, and There Is Such a People of seeking to strip Bulgarian citizens abroad of their right to vote.

Aleksandar Ivanov of GERB-UDF accused Vassilev of putting on "a performance, a circus" that added nothing to the debate."

Vazrazhdane MP Tsvetana Rangelova refuted Vassilev's accusation, noting that limiting the number of polling stations does not amount to disenfranchisement. Her fellow party member Georgi Hrisimirov spent around half an hour listing polling stations in Turkiye where, according to him, CC-DB, MECh, Velichie and what he called “the Turkish parties” want to preserve the votes for Turkish parties. "From Turkiye, between four and nine MPs are sent to the Bulgarian parliament. We cannot allow that," the Vazrazhdane MP added.

Independent MP Myumyun Myumyun asked which Turkish parties were being referred to and noted that he was a member of a Bulgarian party. "The [Movement for Rights and Freedoms] MRF is the party that represents all these people," he noted.

MP Taner Ali of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms said that Hrisimirov had violated the Bulgarian Constitution by claiming that there were Turkish parties in Bulgaria. Under the Constitution, there are only Bulgarian parties in the country, he stressed.