Bulgaria imposed compulsory voting in an attempt to boost turnout as public trust in politicians dropped amid widespread allegations of graft, Bloomberg reports.
Lawmakers voted 109 to 74 with 10 abstentions to adopt a legal amendment to the Election Code that says voting is a “civic duty” compulsory for all, Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva said in Sofia on Thursday.
A draft proposal, which is yet to be voted on, envisages deleting the names of people who don’t vote from the electoral rolls and forcing them to re-register with the city councils when they decide to vote again.
“When the turnout becomes higher, the chances of someone buying votes declines,” Krassimir Velchev, deputy leader of the ruling party Gerb’s parliamentary group, told Bloomberg. “For many years we couldn’t overcome one of the biggest crimes in the country.”
Other European Union countries with compulsory voting include Belgium, Greece and Cyprus. The poorest EU country saw turnout in parliamentary elections decline to 49 percent of eligible voters in the 2014 ballot, which brought to power the minority coalition government led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov. His first cabinet was ousted by anti-austerity protests in 2013.