Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Insists Voting System Referendum 'Is Mandatory'

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has spoken out against a move of the country's election authorities to declare "non-binding" a referendum on the election system of the country.

Turnout in the national poll, conducted in November, fell short of just over 12 000 votes that would have made its result obligatory.

Nearly three million people backed a switch from proportional representation voting to a "first-past-the-post systme in two rounds". They also backed a move to make it mandatory to vote both in elections and referenda (elections are already compulsory under fresh legislation) and a drastic slash in the size of state subsidies allocated to political parties per vote cast in their favour.

Tsatsarov, in a letter shown on air by an evening TV program, has thus sided with the intitiator of the referendum, musician and TV host Slavi Trifonov who earlier lashed out against election authorities.

Even though the result is not binding, the high turnout means lawmakers have to debate and vote on the three issues posed in the referendum.

Tsatsarov says that in his "personal opinion" the vote is that the minor shortfall is not good enough an excuse not to declare the referendum legally binding.

The Chief Prosecutor, however, has asserted that the final say about whether the referendum is valid or not lies with the Supreme Administrative Court (VAS) of Bulgaria.

Earlier this week, he met with Trifonov to discuss the results of the referendum.