A three-question referendum was held in Bulgaria on 6 November 2016 alongside presidential elections.Bulgaria’s 2016 presidential elections: Voters to have ‘I don’t support anyone’ option Sofia Glove, 9 October 2016 Voters were asked whether they supported limiting public funding of political parties to one lev per year per valid vote received at the previous elections, the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referendums, and changing the electoral system for the National Assembly to the two-round system.Bulgarian TV Host Registers Committee for Referendum on Political System Novinite, 23 September 2016 In order to be binding, the number of voters participating in the referendum must be equal to or higher than the number who voted in the 2014 parliamentary elections.Bulgaria's Referendum on Voting System Surprisingly May Pass Threshold Novinite, 7 November 2016
All three proposals were supported by a majority of those voting, but the number of votes cast (3,488,484) was around 12,000 lower than in the 2014 parliamentary elections, meaning the quorum was not met. However, as over 20% of registered voters voted in favour, the proposals still had to be debated in the National Assembly.After a Day of Uncertainty, Bulgaria Voting System Referendum Falls Through Novinite, 8 November 2016 The National Assembly subsequently rejected all three proposals.
Conduct Slavi Trifonov, the initiator of the referendum claimed that the number of people voting in the referendum was actually slightly higher than the number required to make it mandatory, that the Election Commission had closed polling stations while people were still waiting to vote and had removed video surveillance from polling stations to "sabotage the referendum". Some sections could not serve all the voters in reasonable time and a number waited on the line and could not vote, other sections closed earlier than the appointed time (20:00) and in some sections entire boxes with ballots were locked in the sections themselves to avoid their enumeration. Trifonov claimed that more than 12,000 ballots were excluded from the count for not being in an envelope.
Results QuestionForAgainstNone of the aboveInvalid/blankTotalvotesRegisteredvotersTurnoutOutcomeVotes%Votes%Votes%Two-round system for parliamentary elections2,509,86473.80560,02416.47330,9289.7387,6683,488,4846,865,08650.81Compulsory voting2,158,92963.48905,69126.63336,1809.8987,6683,488,468Political funding2,516,79174.02523,75915.40359,77810.5887,6683,487,996Source: CIK
References