What Is Bulgaria's Voting System Referendum About?

Bulgaria will hold on Sunday a national referendum on the voting system, election rules, and state subsidies handed out to political parties.

The national poll will coincide with the presidential elections, whose first and second round are scheduled for November 06 and November 13, respectively.

Here is all you need to know in brief.

What Is Being Asked?

Only three out of six questions made it into the ballot. These are:

1. Do you support the election of national representatives [lawmakers] through a first-past-the-post system in two rounds?

2. Do you support the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referenda?

3. Do you support a state subsidy allocated to fund political parties to BGN 1 per every valid vote received in the last parliamentary elections?

The initial proposal included three more questions, but these were dropped by Bulgaria's Constitutional Court at the reference of President Rosen Plevneliev. Citizens were to be asked whether remote online voting should be enabled, whether the number of MPs should be cut in half to 120, and whether regional police chiefs should be voted into office under a majority system.

Bulgaria adopted online voting under a referendum and is poised to implement it in a few years. The number of MPs, on the other hand, can only lie with a Great National Assembly, the top court believes.

Interested political formations and economic groups for their could would interfere in the process of electing regional police chiefs, magistrates ruled.

What Are the Pros and Cons?

Majority voting may give the opportunity to judge candidates according to merit, and not to party affiliation...