The parliament put an end last week to the long tackled subject named compulsory voting, introducing the latter despite many objections on the part of the opposition. 109 MPs voted for, 74 against and 10 abstained. Whoever doesn’t vote now will be automatically wiped out from the lists and an application form will have to be submitted for the next polls. RB’s Vesela Vladkova interviews political annalist Prof. Antonyi Galabov on the subject:

“The idea belongs to the president from two years ago and it came as as some sort of a medicine for curing apathy and the lack of trust in this country’s political parties, the corruption within the voting process etc. That didn’t happen at once and not in the format, proposed by the presidential referendum and the poll was not compulsory. After all the MPs had to make that decision which should have gone through a referendum with a much wider ground of agreement necessary. We didn’t opt for the sensible way and we delegated it all to the parties at the national assembly. Now some sort of an interim agreement has been reached and I don’t think the reactions will be late, as those will be more than controversial.”

The opposition stood firmly against compulsory voting – socialist Yanaki Stoilov and the MRF voiced that to the plenary hall. The Reformist Bloc also showed criticism towards the idea. Their Radan Kanev said that the Bulgarian citizens were now obliged by a legislative force to fill in the huge gap between them and the politicians. “This gap is our sin,” Kanev went on to say. In such case, can compulsory voting become any motivation at all for people who haven’t cast their ballot in a series of elections? Prof. Galabov answers:

“I myself doubt about that,” he comments. “The participation in polls should be part of our common civil duty. The lack of any sense in that direction testifies on the deep lack of any trust in all political parties.”

The low turnout is also due to the disappointment after so many painful years of transition. The period after 1989 led to poll trade and political apathy. Now Prof. Galabov sees a serious threat for Bulgaria’s democracy:

“I am afraid that we don’t build up our political life in accordance with the principles of democracy. I fear that we are getting closer to another type of political regime,” the expert says. “That is why a large number of the Bulgarian citizens feel that the authority is somehow formed in advance and without their will. Those who do not vote live with the attitude that nothing is up to the common man – that the authority lives some sort of a closed life with some groups of powerful men contracting in advance who will be in charge. This attitude has nothing to do with democracy. It corresponds to oligarchy. Oligarchy is a political regime, an overall political system and not simply a group of oligarchs. So Bulgaria’s democracy does face real risks. If people had had the chance to vote for or against compulsory voting we would not have faced now the necessity to predict the behavior of the political parties. The will of the nation would have been clear now.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev