Bulgarian MPs are to discuss two proposals for a national referendum.

One of the proposals, initiated by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, envisages a referendum on election rules, while the referendum proposal of an initiative committee includes three questions – the introduction of compulsory voting, majority voting and electronic voting, according to the Bulgarian National Radio.

Center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) has called for a referendum to be held together with the forthcoming early elections.

Sergey Stanishev, leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), expressed support last week for the introduction of compulsory voting, and he was backed by GERB, nationalist party Ataka, the Bulgaria without Censorship party, and right-wing formation The Reformist Bloc.

Meanwhile, independent MP Rumen Yonchev tabled on Wednesday a proposal for introducing compulsory voting on behalf of the Bulgaria without Censorship party of Nikolay Barekov.

He made clear that the proposal envisaged change to the Election Code introducing incentives for voters and fines for non-voters.

Yonchev announced that the fines amounted to BGN 10 – 50 and were supposed to increase in the case of a repeat offence, i.e. failure to vote at the next elections.

He said that the legal changes obliged the state to put as much effort as possible into opening a sufficient number of polling stations abroad, adding that in the case of a failure to facilitate voting abroad, the people would be granted an exemption.

Yonchev noted that the changes also stipulated protection for people with mobility problems.

The parliamentary legal committee, however, could not reach a final decision on the proposals during its Wednesday sitting.