Insufficient voter turnout postpones implementation of e-voting in Bulgaria

Insufficient voter turnout at the referendum on Sunday postponed the introduction of electronic voting in Bulgaria, and the National Assembly should resolve this issue, the final results showed on Friday.

According to the results released by the Central Election Commission on its website, the voter turnout was 40 percent, and 69.5 percent of those voting answered positively to the question: "Do you support the idea that people will have the right to vote from distance online when elections and referendums are held?"

The referendum is invalid because the electoral activity should be not less than that of the last parliamentary elections in the country, according to Bulgarian legislation. For this referendum, the required voter turnout was 48.66 percent, which was achieved in the parliamentary elections in 2014.

However, because less than 48.66 percent but more than 20 percent of citizens with voting rights participated in the referendum, and "yes" votes were more than half, the decision has to be debated and voted in the parliament.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, who initiated the referendum, told a press conference on Friday that he was satisfied and "encouraged by the desire of millions of Bulgarian citizens who demonstrated clearly that referendums in Bulgaria should happen."

He expressed hope that members of the parliament would respect the vote of 1.8 million Bulgarians who wished to have electronic voting.

If the rulers ignore the results of the referendum, they "will make a big political mistake," Plevneliev warned.

It was the second referendum held in the Balkan country after 1989. At the first referendum in January 2013, 60.6 percent of the voters said "yes" to the question on whether the country should build a new nuclear power plant, with a voter turnout of only 20.2 percent, but subsequently the legislators made the opposite decision. Endit