Bulgaria Abolishes Cap on Overseas Voting Sections in Election Code Reform

The Bulgarian Parliamentary Legal Committee approved amendments to the Election Code that remove the previous limit of twenty voting sections outside the European Union. Under the new rules, voting stations may be established in diplomatic and consular missions abroad, at locations that receive at least 40 voter applications, or where a section has existed in the past five years with a minimum of 100 voters. The changes also allow the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to block sections in certain states for security reasons, such as during armed conflict.

Additional reforms require electronic voting machines for any section with more than 300 voters, limiting paper ballots to smaller precincts. The separate “foreign” electoral district is eliminated, and the Central Electoral Commission’s decisions will now be taken by a simple majority rather than a two‑thirds super‑majority. New provisions grant disabled voters who miss the filing deadline the right to vote, create a training unit for election‑commission members, and impose stricter sanctions on social‑media accounts that publish interim poll data on election day.