A referendum on introducing

electronic voting Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

was held in Bulgaria on 25 October 2015 alongside local elections. Although the referendum resulted was approved by a wide margin, turnout was far below the required threshold to make its result binding.

Background

A petition was introduced into the Bulgarian

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

on 10 March 2013 by an Initiative Committee presided by professor

Georgi Bliznashki Georgi Petkov Bliznashki ( bg, Георги Петков Близнашки; born 4 October 1956) is a Bulgarian politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was a member of the Coalition for Bulgaria, part of the Party ...

on proposed changes to the electoral code of Bulgaria. These included: reintroducing

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

alongside

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, making voting compulsory and introducing

. Under current Bulgarian law a referendum is mandatory if a petition receives at least five hundred thousand signatures. Supporters claimed to have 560,000 signatures on the petition, giving Parliament three months (until early June) to authenticate the signatures. Numerous signatures were nullified, however, and so the requirement of half of million authentic signatures was missed. Still, there were enough signatures to put the content up for debate before parliament. When the debate came in June, however, lawmakers rejected the idea of holding the referendum. One of the elements in the petition, that of introducing mandatory voting, has been put forward by the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party,

Sergei Stanishev Sergey Dmitrievich Stanishev ( bg, Сергей Дмитриевич Станишев ; born 5 May 1966) is a Bulgarian politician who is serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He previously served as President of the Party of Eu ...

, and has been endorsed by the leader of

GERB GERB ( bg, ГЕРБ, translation=coat of arms, acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) is a conservative, Populism, populist List of political parties in Bulgaria, political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria betwee ...

, Boyko Borisov.

Results

References

{{Bulgarian elections 2015 in Bulgaria Referendums in Bulgaria 2015 referendums October 2015 events in Europe