Direct democracy

The pre-referendum period was particularly informative with regard to the state of journalism in Turkey, with widespread violations of ethical principles and with partisan journalism intertwined with politics.   

Turkey's main opposition party has vowed to take widespread irregularities during the April 16 referendum to the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), repeating its accusations against the election watchdog and calling on the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to annul the referendum results.

Bulgarian authorities will have to take into account the decisions made in future national referendums if at least 3,682,151 people have taken part in these.

This is the number of people who voted in the snap parliamentary elections on March 26, announced the Central Election Commission on Thursday.

The Supreme Administrative Court has annulled the decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) ruling that the referendum is null and void due to 12,027 missing votes.

The magistrates ruled that the commission did not count 490 valid votes, as proven by the expert commission appointed to investigate the case.

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has spoken out against a move of the country's election authorities to declare "non-binding" a referendum on the election system of the country.

Turnout in the national poll, conducted in November, fell short of just over 12 000 votes that would have made its result obligatory.

Ombudsman Maya Manolova and representatives of the initiative committee for the carrying out of a National referendum 2016 will submit to Parliament a draft bill on amendments to the Electoral Code.

The party of Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister in resignation has submitted the three questions posed in a three-point referendum to Parliament.

This comes after GERB party had been skeptical about some of the referendum proposals for months.

The election of Donald Trump has confirmed that we live increasingly in an era of direct democracy based on populist demagoguery. Developments in Hungary and Poland also show that Europe is not exempt from this. Even Brexit was the result of this.

The final count of votes in Bulgaria's three-point referendum may make its result binding in a surprise move, data from the election authorities shows.

If confirmed, the calculation will not match exit poll projections it does not meet the threshold.

Bulgarian talkshow host Slavi Trifonov has said it "will depend on circumstances" whether or not he will set up a party after a referendum held along with the presidential elections.

Following the three-question referendum on the voting system, Trifonov has told the media his referendum proves the status quo can be changed.