Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Parliament votes in favour of paper-or-machine voting after 18 hours of arguments and quarrelling

| updated on 12/2/22 5:52 PM
Photo: BGNES

At a sitting of the National Assembly that dragged on for 18 hours, the MPs voted (with the votes of GERB-SDS, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and the Bulgarian Socialist Party), at second reading, that voters shall exercise their right to vote using a paper ballot or by voting machine, but never got to discussing half of the texts in the Election Code.

The arguments concerning the mixed form of voting grew to noisy altercations and personal attacks, with the MPs from We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria walking out of plenary, calls for protests, and a statement by We Continue the Change that they will not propose a cabinet on the second government-forming mandate if voting by paper ballot is voted back into the Election Code. Meanwhile Democratic Bulgaria and We Continue the Change called a protest in front of parliament building against the voting by paper ballot.

The protest in front of parliament building

During the long parliamentary sitting, the MPs also voted to keep the constituency for expatriate voters, for video surveillance and recording on election day, for counting, by hand, of the ballots from the voting machines alongside the paper ballots. At the insistence of Vazrazhdane party, the Bulgarian national anthem was played at midnight. 

The final decision is to vote both by paper ballots and machines in the next elections, and the results will also be recorded on flash drives. However, a protocol from the machine voting will not be printed, and applications for opening a new electoral section abroad remain 40.
Parliament also agreed that the Central Election Commission should provide access to the source code and documentation of the machines to the representatives of the parties and coalitions that received more than 4% in the last election.

Photots: BGNES and Diana Kostova



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Cloudy with occasional showers

Friday will be cloudy, but there will be no rain during the day. Precipitation will start in the evening in eastern Bulgaria and continue during the night over the rest of the country.  Minimum temperatures will be between minus 2°C and 3°C, around 0°C in..

published on 4/10/25 7:05 PM

Bulgaria returns the remains of the Sarafovo bomber to Lebanon

Bulgaria is returning to Lebanon the remains of the terrorist who, in 2012, blew himself on a bus carrying Israeli tourists , BGNES reported. The terrorist attack took place at Sarafovo Airport—the deadliest attack on Israelis abroad since 2004. In the..

published on 4/10/25 6:33 PM

Parliament approves at first reading three draft amendments to the Family Code

Bulgaria’s National Assembly approved at first reading three draft amendments to the Family Code. GERB-SDS propose introducing the possibility of shared parenting in cases of divorce, with the court ruling also addressing the issue of the child’s..

published on 4/10/25 6:01 PM