The parliament adopted amendments in the elections of national represenatives act on first reading

The National Assembly voted on the amendments in the Elections of National Representatives Act, put forward by Hristo Biserov (MRF). They provide for shortening of the electoral campaign from 4 to 3 weeks. There will also be no day for "contemplation" prior to the vote. Focus Agency reported.

The MPs adopted the bill put forward by Coalition for Bulgaria which stipulates that the threshold value for preference rearrangement of candidate list will be decreased form 15 to 10 pp. The left wing also proposed a new mechanism for drawing up electoral registers. The new electoral rolls will not indicate the identity card number, nor the personal identification number of the voter.

Another proposal prohibits donations by legal entities and foreign persons, and puts a limit to donations from natural persons at 10 000 levs.

The amendments put forward by the independent MP Lachezar Ivanov provide for the participation of parties and coalitions represented in the European parliament in Central, Regional and Sofia electoral committees. He puts forward that political parties state in their promotional materials that buying votes is a criminal offence. He also suggested that the threshold value for preference rearrangement of candidate list be decreased to 5%.

The parliament voted down the bill proposed by UDF. It provided for preferential voting with no threshold for list rearrangements. It also stipulated that voting booths be replaced by voting behind a counter and that mobile ballot-boxes be introduced for physically-challenged citizens.

The Chair of the parliamentary group of Coalition for Bulgaria Angel Naidenov proposed that the deadline for amendments before the second reading be shortened to 6 p.m. on Friday but his proposal will be voted on Wednesday.