Bulgaria’s President vetoed the changes in the Election Code

Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev vetoed the changes in the Election Code. One of his motives is that the package of changes weakens the mechanism for fair and free elections. He urged the opposition to return to Parliament when election code changes are discussed again.

I returned the bill for a new discussion in the Parliament. Disputed controversy over preferences has covered up other important changes in the law that have kept us away from an honest and democratic election process, President Rumen Radev said on 25^th of February in a statement to the media.

According to him, the changes not only deprive citizens of the opportunity to vote preferentially for personalities and privilege the party's will over the will of the voters, but the changes do not introduce criteria to define the sections in the phased introduction of machine voting, and the threshold of 300 voters deprives small settlements from the right of machine voting, he said.

"It is very unacceptable that acts related to the electoral process remain not capable of being appealed. Thus, the constitutional right such as electoral law remains without judicial protection in the event of a violation. The introduction of a declining majority in the work of electoral commissions erodes political pluralism without which there are no honest elections. The changes in the jurisdiction of the Central Election Commission's work and decisions are not in the interests of legitimacy in the election process. The package of changes to the Electoral Code weakens the mechanisms for ensuring fair elections. To that end, I impose veto on those changes," said Rumen Radev.

At the same time, the legislator once again postpones the introduction of machine voting, the updating of voter lists and the introduction of video control when counting ballots. These actions entail a lack of will for a transparent and fair electoral process, he added.

Particularly worrying is the attempt of the majority to correct their own mistakes, bypassing the order set out in the Constitution. Last week, same MPs with equal diligence defended two opposing decisions within just a few days. Such behavior ruins the Bulgarians' trust in parliamentarism and gives a dangerous temptation to the political expedience to be realized without regard to the Constitution and the laws. It is good that common sense has stopped this attempt before it has been realized.

Honest elections are what distinguishes democracy from all other forms of governance. We lose the right to choose our leaders, we will lose everything achieved during the last three difficult decades.

I call on the opposition to return to Parliament when it re-debates the Electoral Code changes. I dare to hope that the MPs will behave responsibly and will respect the motives of the veto, the President said.