From 24 February till 24 March an election campaign is underway in Bulgaria ahead of the snap parliamentary elections on March 26. A few events before its official inception have continued practices of last minute changes of election rules and have created ambiguity raising serious questions.

Notified by National Ombudsman Maya Manolova, hours before the start of the campaign the Constitutional Court canceled penalties for not voting with the argument that they contradict the Constitution. The Court however has left untouched Article 3 of the Electoral Code under which voting is compulsory and despite removing sanctions it remains so. Compulsory voting across the world aims to encourage election turnout but in Bulgaria this effect is still hard to evaluate because this kind of voting was for the first time introduced at the presidential elections last year. Ombudsman Maya Manolova however is satisfied with the developments and she now suggests to politicians to think of how to replace penalties for not voting with measures to encourage turnout. Of course this cannot take place now but only after the elections and provided newly elected parliamentarians decide they want to do so.

The election campaign kicked off without clarity whether voting machines would be available in all polling stations. For delivery of such machines there has been only a single applicant company but no statement has been released as to whether the company lives up to technical and financial terms for supply of voting machines. According to the Central Election Commission and the caretaker government the absence of voting machines would not represent violation of voting rights because the option of voting with paper ballots would be universally available at polling stations. Others however have argued that failure to provide voting machines would create grounds for questioning election results.

As the election campaign began there was no clarity over either the number of those willing to vote abroad, or the places of opening polling stations beyond Bulgaria’s borders.  Formally this is not a problem, because the deadline for submitting applications for voting abroad expires on 28 February and for fixing places for polling stations – on 4 March. It however becomes a problem, and a painful one, given that unlike Bulgarians based in Bulgaria, those residing abroad will not be able to vote preferentially and to elect independent candidates. This derives from the fact that despite protests and political vows a special constituency for voters abroad has not been formed in which it would be possible to vote for preferred candidates in the party tickets.

Ultimately, there is no fatal confusion ahead of the elections on 26 March and the vote is not under serious threat. There is however chronic discontent with the political class that strengthens the will for change as all public opinion polls have suggested. 

English Daniela Konstantinova