The leader of "Vazrazhdane" Kostadin Kostadinov defended on BNT the party's proposed changes to the Electoral Code related to limiting the number of polling stations in countries outside the EU, rejecting criticism that they violate constitutional rights or will cause queues in front of the polling stations.
„There was a period of 4 years - from 2017 to 2021, a restriction on voting in countries outside the European Union and there was no problem then. This is good for the people of PP–DB“ to read, said the leader of “Vazrazhdane“.
He explained that the amendments in question are a promise of the party to the voters and pointed out that this proposal was submitted for the first time in December 2021, and then in the 47th, 48th, 50th and 51st National Assembly.
“There is one reason and it is very simple – in Turkey, the voting of people who are only formally connected to the Bulgarian state represents an existential threat to the country's national security. Absolutely! Secondly, it is not by chance that we set the limit of 20 sections, because we analyzed the voting in the only two countries outside the EU in which more people vote – Great Britain and the USA. In the UK, 21,000 people voted in the last elections, in the US - 8,000, which means that the limit of 20 polling stations is quite achievable, because these are 20 polling stations outside the embassy and outside the consular offices, which means that between 4 and 6 additional polling stations can be opened.“
Kostadinov commented that in our country up to 1,000 people can vote in polling stations. In this regard, he does not see the criticism from the CEC that queues of voters will be created as justified.
„How is it that the CEC says that queues of voters will be created abroad, but they will not be created in Bulgaria? Each of us can see how many people are in his polling station.“