On Wednesday no less than three dailies write about the plans of the ruling party GERB to renew the discussion in parliament on the introduction of a majority voting system in Bulgaria.

Trud carries a headline stating that GERB wants a crucial election change. Dnevnik writes that GERB’s idea is that the president should conduct the new zoning of the country, Sega on its part writes that GERB is once again dooming the introduction of the majority vote to failure. According to Trud newspaper the ruling party will submit the same bill for discussion that failed to gain the support of the other political forces in the 43^rd National Assembly. The main idea in this bill was to divide the territory of the country into 240 multi-member constituencies with each one having its own election commission. Dnevnik highlights the fact that GERB is insisting that the zoning should be done by the president of the republic, because he is able to harness the entire state resource to prevent possible favouring of any one participant in the election. Sega writes that GERB’s intentions will fail miserably for two reasons - because the party is only changing the technical details of a bill that was rejected by the previous parliament and because the president’s administration has already made it clear that the head of state has neither the capacity, nor the institutional calling to carry out the electoral zoning of the country. According to Sega, GERB are not taking the electoral reform seriously because to this moment they have done nothing to gain the support of the other parliamentary formations. It is now clear that their coalition partner – the United Patriots will not support them. The Bulgarian Socialist Party is adamant in its support for a mixed system, whereas the position of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) is unclear, though GERB will not be able to rely on its support, whereas Volya party talked of supporting the majority voting system before the elections and then stopped. According to Dnevnik, introducing a majority voting system in the country is hardly likely to be endorsed by parliament, as GERB’s coalition partner – the United Patriots, as well as the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the DPS are, for the time being, opposed to the idea.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Milena Daynova