With 143 votes in favour, two against and two abstaining, the National Assembly passed amendments to the President and Vice-Presidential Election Act last Friday. The draft amendments were put forward by Plamen Panayotov, floor leader of the National Movement Simeon II (NMSII) which holds 120 of the 240 seats in the current Parliament.

The amendments envisage that all president and vice-president candidates should be listed in order of their registration on a single voting paper. The bill increases the deposit for participation in the elections from 250 to 1,000 leva. The election campaign will be financed by candidates. Under the amendments they can receive donations of up to 10,000 leva from private individuals, and up to 30,000 leva from legal entities.

The whole amount for financing the election campaign of a president and vice-president team should not exceed two million leva. Until now the limit was 2,000 leva. The campaigns, however, cannot be financed by foreign countries, persons, entities or joint ventures with more than 25 per cent foreign participation.

According to the amendments, entities with more than 50 per cent state or municipal participation cannot finance presidential election campaigns. The MPs cancelled the section of the Act which states that foreign radio stations broadcasting on the territory of Bulgaria cannot provide time for election campaigns. According to Tatyana Doncheva from the Coalition for Bulgaria, this will allow foreign individuals or entities to finance the campaign.

Parliament decided to cut the length of debates on National Television and National Radio from 90 to 60 minutes. Yanaki Stoilov from the Coalition for Bulgaria objected to the decision and pointed out that this would not give candidates enough time to fully present their arguments in the debates.

The MPs voted that any violations of the Act will be sanctioned with fines ranging from 500 to 30,000 leva.

Yunal Lutfi from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms said on Tuesday that all the parliamentary parties had agreed that the presidential elections should be held on November 11. The National Assembly has to vote on a date by the end of the week. The possibilities are November 11 and 18.