In the Legal Committee of the National Assembly, we are once again witnessing an attempt to limit basic civil and political rights of Bulgarian citizens, this time of our compatriots who live and work in countries outside the European Union, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS) states in a position paper.
The proposal to limit voting in non-EU countries to a maximum of 20 polling stations constitutes a gross form of discrimination, which contradicts the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, the principle of equality of citizens and the very logic of the democratic electoral process.
It is particularly worrying and politically incomprehensible that this restrictive and inherently nationalistic proposal, submitted by the PP “Vazrazhdane“, receives support from representatives of GERB, BSP and ITN - political forces whose governance and actions provoked mass civil protests and led the country to yet another early parliamentary election.
With this position, they once again demonstrate disregard for the free voice of democratic civil society, a significant part of which today lives and works outside Bulgaria - in Great Britain, the USA, Canada, Turkey, Switzerland, countries in Asia, Australia and all over the world.
At the same time, they demonstrate disregard for the fact of Bulgaria's deepening international isolation, caused primarily by the persistent absence of the rule of law, the systematic failure to comply with democratic standards and the practice of conjunctural and repressive lawmaking in our country.
Bulgarian citizens abroad pay taxes and social security contributions in Bulgaria; send funds to their families; support the economy, education and social systems; preserve the Bulgarian identity, culture and language. Their vote is no less significant and no less legitimate.
Limiting the possibility of voting in countries outside the EU by artificially reducing the number of polling stations, disproportionate to the number of Bulgarian citizens with the right to vote in the respective country outside the EU, does not solve a single real problem of the electoral process. It does not increase the fairness of the elections, but only reduces voter turnout; creates inequality between citizens; serves narrow-party and nationalist political calculations. “Alliance for Rights and Freedoms“ categorically states that the right to vote does not depend on geography, but on citizenship. The rights, responsibility and contribution of every citizen do not end at the border of the state, nor at the external border of the European Union.
We call on the parties in the 51st National Assembly and their representatives in the Committee on Legal Affairs:
• to reject any attempts to restrict the voting rights of Bulgarian citizens abroad;
• to guarantee equal and free access to voting for all Bulgarian citizens, regardless of where in the world they can do it;
• to end the practice of changing election rules under the pressure of political circumstances and fear of the free vote of every Bulgarian citizen with voting rights.
Free voting is the foundation of democracy. Whoever restricts it undermines the state itself, the APS adds.