"The idea that Bulgarians abroad are not part of Bulgaria is not only harmful, but also deeply false": how do Bulgarians in the US and UK react to the request to limit the number of polling stations in countries outside the EU?
Bulgarian citizens living outside the country have a constitutionally guaranteed right to participate in elections in Bulgaria. However, exercising this right for the majority of them may remain only a theoretical possibility, after the Legal Committee in Parliament supported the limitation of the number of polling stations in countries outside the European Union (EU) on second reading.
In recent years, emigrants have been sending over 1 billion euros a year to Bulgaria. The amount often exceeds direct foreign investments, and the real amount, including unofficial funds sent, is probably over 1.5 billion euros per year. This makes Bulgarians outside Bulgaria the largest investor in the country. A huge part of these funds come from the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Spain and Greece. How the majority of the parliamentarians relate to the "largest investor" is evident from the adopted changes to the Electoral Code, which ignore precisely these Bulgarians.
As if they don't care about Bulgarians abroad
A large part of the diaspora lives with the feeling that "the authorities in Bulgaria don't care about Bulgarians outside Bulgaria". Evgeni Veselinov, creator and editor-in-chief of the first printed publication in Bulgarian in the USA and founder and director of the first Bulgarian school on the American West Coast, is convinced of this. He has lived in Los Angeles for 26 years, and since 2005 has organized voting in Bulgarian elections in San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and even Hawaii.
"The idea that we are not part of Bulgaria is harmful and deeply false", says Maria Spirova, an editor at a London law publishing house and winner of international awards for analytical journalism and an active advocate for the voting rights of Bulgarians abroad. "We support a large part of the state of Bulgaria without consuming any of it. Over 2 percent of the GDP is from the money sent by Bulgarians abroad so that Bulgarians in Bulgaria can pay their bills and taxes. Not to mention that we also pay taxes."
This is not the first time that the ruling party has demonstrated disregard for emigrants. Even during the time of the VMRO, an attempt was made to exclude Bulgarians outside Bulgaria from the elections, recalls Maria Spirova, specifying that in the current case, Kostadin Kostadinov's "Vazrazhdane" "made a deal with Peevski to stop people from Turkey who are loyal to Dogan". Nothing, people from Turkey can get on a bus and vote in Bulgaria. Which, however, is impossible for emigrants from the UK and the US, she points out.
"I and the other people who vote regularly believe that it is undemocratic to limit our opportunities to exercise our right to vote," says Zhivka Bubalova, founder and director of "Little Bulgarian School" in Chicago, which is the largest Bulgarian school abroad.
She and Evgeni Veselinov raise the issue of the refusal to introduce electronic voting. The two are convinced that if the polling stations are really limited, many Bulgarians in the US will refuse to vote because it means traveling huge distances.
After the creation of a multi-member electoral district for Bulgarian citizens abroad was postponed once again, the logical result is a drop in activity, says Evgeni Veselinov. He adds that a large part of the emigrants are excited about what is happening in Bulgaria, not only because "it is their homeland, not only because there are families who can support themselves there, not only because their childhood friends have remained there, but also because their personal strategies depend on the outcome of the elections... Many of them want to return to the country, but they do not trust today's leaders."
"One of our voters, who turned 101, does not refuse to travel 2 hours with her children and grandchildren to vote! "There are such people among Bulgarians abroad, whom the authorities treat with disdain," points out Zhivka Bubalova.
One day they tell us: Go back! The next: Stay there.
According to Maria Spirova, the pragmatic dimensions of the problem, without touching on the issue of constitutional rights, are the following: even in peak mass voting activity, votes from "all abroad", taken together (Great Britain, EU, USA, Canada, Australia, Turkey), are not able to significantly change the results of the elections in Bulgaria. "We gain nothing as a nation from blocking the votes of people who have the full right to cast them." And further: "There are over 400 thousand Bulgarians registered in Great Britain. Let's assume that half of them have the right to vote. These are 200 thousand relatively recent emigrants who have one foot in Bulgaria all the time. "Vazrazhdane" and GERB say that the country is depopulating, that there is no qualified workforce, that there are demographic problems. One day they say: Come back, we really need you. To the other: You have no right to determine the future of the country, we are ending your civil rights! This is the strongest signal you can send to someone - by spitting in their face and telling them: Don't come back, we don't need you."
This demonstration of alienation, of a fundamental misunderstanding of the processes of international existence, which every diaspora has, leads to the breaking of ties. "No effort is made to keep these people integrated into the economic and social life of Bulgaria", points out Maria Spirova, who is a co-organizer of a volunteer network for opening polling stations in the EU and the USA.
When asked how they will cope with the upcoming elections, she answers this way: "We are organizing elections in difficult conditions, within constantly changing frameworks of electoral legislation. One of the main problems is that in many places in the world the election regime is permissive. You have to convince the host country that you know what you are doing, that you will not create chaos on the streets by setting up polling stations in 50 places in London."
She points out that there has already been such a case. "The streets of London were filled with queues for 6 hours from people who wanted to vote but could not reach the ballot box." Maria Spirova also emphasizes that voting by ballot is a much longer process than voting by machine. "Abroad, where you are not on the lists, when you go to the commission, you sit down and, like a Paisius, you fill out a declaration with all your personal data, after which members of the commission have to copy this declaration into the electoral list by hand… and so on. etc."
In her words, if the sections in non-EU countries are limited to 20, "the whole of Great Britain will be left out, voting will only take place in London". In the last elections, after the major protests in Bulgaria, almost 34 thousand people voted in Great Britain, recalls Maria Spirova. "Since a stormy vote is expected again, let someone do the math on how to fit 34,000 people into 20 sections."