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.
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.
Photots: BGNES and Diana Kostova
At night, the wind will shift from the north-northeast and bring in cold air. On Tuesday, cloudy weather will prevail. In many places there will be snowfalls. The lowest temperatures will be between minus 1°C and 4°C; in Sofia -..
The fire in a discotheque in the Macedonian town of Kocani, which killed 59 young people and injured more than 150, has prompted preventive action by the authorities in Bulgaria. The fire service has launched additional inspections of nearly 260..
Dozens of people have responded to the call of the Pirogov Emergency Hospital in Sofia to donate blood in support of the victims of the fire in Kočani, North Macedonia. The campaign is organized by the Bulgarian Red Cross. It will..
A protest is taking place in Sofia to demand maximum sentences for a man and a woman who killed animals in a particularly cruel way. So far, nearly..
Overnight, clouds over the north and east will bring brief showers. There will be light to moderate westerly winds which will increase in strength on..
In response to the tragedy in North Macedonia, where more than 50 people lost their lives in a fire at a nightclub in the town of Kočani, Foreign..
Overcast, rain
Rain
Occasional showers
sunshine, cloud, rain and thunder
Scattered showers