The BSP will not support proposals that can be interpreted as restricting the right to vote. This was stated in the studio of “Hello, Bulgaria“ by Assoc. Prof. Natalia Kiselova, MP from “BSP-United Left“ and former Speaker of the National Assembly, commenting on the allegations that the party wants to introduce a requirement for prior active registration of citizens who have not voted in previous elections.
“At the moment, it is not correct to support such a proposal, because with short deadlines between its adoption and implementation, this looks like an obstruction of the right to vote“, Kiselova emphasized. In her words, when elections “knock on the door“, such ideas create unnecessary commotion and distrust. At least some time is needed before the elections to introduce such an idea.
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Kiselova explained that at the beginning of the 51st National Assembly, all parties that passed the 4 percent barrier submitted their own proposals for changes to the Electoral Code. “Our analysis indicated that there should be efforts to clean up the voter lists and increase voter turnout“, she said. In this context, the idea of the so-called active civil registration, but in a longer-term horizon and with enough time for public debate.
“When there is not enough time between the adoption of a change and its implementation, this looks like a restriction, not a measure to stimulate voting“, added Kiselova and specified that this is precisely why the BSP will withdraw this text when it is discussed in the parliamentary committee.
The former speaker of parliament also commented on the fierce dispute over the method of voting. She recalled that it was the BSP that supported the introduction of the machine vote years ago. “Then we decided that this was a way to improve the electoral process“, said Kiselova.
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According to her, however, the accumulated experience shows that there are problems with both types of voting. “The proven manipulations are with the paper vote, but in the recent disputes, including around the elections for mayor of a large metropolitan municipality, the problems appeared with the machine voting“, she pointed out. According to her, the hasty changes “at 12 minutes to one“ could lead to even greater chaos.
Kiselova also gave a personal example from her work in a sectional commission abroad in 2023, when the machine printed a ballot from which it was not clear to understand the vote of the voter. “When we talk about changes in electoral legislation, they should increase trust, not undermine it“, she emphasized.
According to her, one of the main reasons for the current political crisis is precisely the lack of trust in the electoral process and in the National Assembly. “Whatever change is made, it must be supported by all parliamentary groups, otherwise we risk deepening the division“, the MP added.
Kiselova stated that the official position of the BSP will be presented to the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, but stressed her personal belief that the country is not ready for new technological experiments in the electoral process. “My opinion is that at the moment we are not ready to introduce scanning devices“, she said, specifying that such decisions should be made after serious coordination with the Central Election Commission.
She also drew attention to the fact that in the last elections more voters preferred paper voting, which should also be taken into account in future decisions.