Bulgaria Foreign Minister: Polls Abroad Costly, Ineffective

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister, Ivaylo Kalfin, declared Wednesday that the opening of voting stations abroad was costly and ineffective.

His statement came as as tensions between the Bulgarian state and migrants abroad escalates over voting procedures, 

"The opening of voting booths abroad is a very expensive and ineffective exercise," Ivaylo Kalfin, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin said at a press conference that presented a report on the work of the ministry during the four-year term of the Socialist-led government.

He assured that the ministry has enough experience in organizing elections abroad and cited as a bad example the experiment of his predecessor, during whose term many voting booths were opened, but the impact on the election results was negligible.

A total of 77 020 Bulgarian migrants abroad voted in the general elections in 2005 in 344 polling stations around the world. The next year, when Bulgaria held presidential elections, 70 670 migrants headed to the polls, whose number was two times fewer than in 2005.

"It is not the Foreign Ministry, but the Bulgarian tax payers, who pay the expenses made for voting abroad. We just stick to the law, which has not been changed since 2006 when Bulgaria elected a president," Kalfin added.

The statement comes just a day after Bulgarian citizens living abroad, some of whom will face huge obstacles if they want to vote in the upcoming general elections of their home country, were accused of political prejudice by the Foreign Ministry.

Talking at a press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Dragovest Goranov said that the migrants' initiatives for opening more polling booths for the elections on July 5 have been orchestrated by certain political parties.

In letters to embassies, consulates, media and internet forums, Bulgarian migrants have repeatedly asked for more information about the steps state officials have taken to facilitate the voting procedures and overcome the ban on opening voting booths outside diplomatic and consular missions in Germany, Greece, Canada and Macedonia.

The answer of the Foreign Ministry has been that the Bulgarian missions requests for more voting booths have been turned down.

Two hundred and seventy-one polling stations will be opened abroad for the general elections on July 5.

Bulgarians living abroad have threatened to boycott the elections over the difficulties in voting.

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