Bulgaria's President Hints at Plot against E-Voting Referendum

President Rosen Plevneliev has suggested an attempt was made to sabotage the referendum on online voting Bulgaria held on Sunday.

In an address several days after the referendum, he has compared the massive cyber attacks, to which election authorities were subjected during the vote, to the so-called "Kostinbrod affair" - a scandal that broke out hours before the early general election in 2013 over the printing of 350 000 fake ballots.

Plevneliev has referred the case to the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and is waiting for their explanation as to what happened.

Hours after the referendum, the socialist opposition cited the hack attacks as an example of how insecure e-voting can be.

The head of Information Services, the company counting ballots, for his part announced he had some suggestions about a big hackers' team that might have been behind the attack.

It was an idea put forward by President Plevneliev to hold a referendum on voting rules, with three questions, of which two were rejected by lawmakers, reducing the poll to "yes" or "no" to the introduction of online voting in elections and future referendums.

The head of state also called on MPs to hold a quick discussion on the referendum question and then put it to a vote, as obliged under the law.

However, he also opined one "should not be quite optimistic" as to whether lawmakers will pass a motion allowing e-voting.

MPs are now required to consider a bill on online voting after some 2.7 million people took part in the referendum. That fell short of the 3.5 million needed to make its results binding, but generated a turnout of far beyond 20% (with a majority having voted "yes") that automatically sends the question to...