A 5-% threshold for preferential vote at European elections was established by Bulgarian lawmakers.

The decision taken by the MPs late on Thursday lowers the threshold enacted by the current Electoral Code, which is 6%.

This means voters at the European elections will have the option to choose a specific candidate and anyone with more than 5% support could position himself on top of his party's list.

Legislators, however, have also approved the Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS) party's proposal that ballots wherein preference has not been marked will automatically be counted as a "preference vote" for the list's current leader, Bulgarian agency Mediapool.bg reports.

MPs from the opposition party GERB claimed that the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party had accepted the measure as a concession to the DPS, which stultifies optional preference vote.