Referendum on Bulgaria's Belene NPP Confirmed Irreversible

Business » ENERGY | September 28, 2012, Friday // 14:38
Bulgaria: Referendum on Bulgaria's Belene NPP Confirmed Irreversible The inspection of the petition initiated by Bulgarian socialists on the Belene NPP project has confirmed 543 639 valid signatures, enough to make the vote irreversible. Photo by dariknews.bg

The inspection of the petition of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for a referendum on the Belene NPP project has concluded, with 543 639 valid signatures, enough to make the vote irreversible.

Under Bulgarian legislation, the Bulgarian Parliament is under an obligation to call a referendum if a petition is backed by no less than 500 000 valid signatures.

The results of the inspection of the 717 021 signatures collected by BSP were submitted to Parliament Thursday, Bulgarian Sega daily reports.

According to Lilyana Pavlova, Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, who commented the results Friday in Parliament, a total of 173 382 signatures are invalid, slightly over 137 000 signatures have wrong data, including civil identification number (EGN) and names, 28 000 signatures were entered two or three times, over 2200 were signatures by minors signatures, over 1300 were signatures by foreigners, and nearly 3000 were signatures of deceased.

The number of valid signatures is sufficient to make it obligatory for Parliament to call a referendum.

The Bulgarian Parliament can only amend the wording of the question(s) without changing the meaning.

By end-October, the petition must be reviewed by parliamentary committees and a plenary session must adopt a decision backing the vote.

After the Parliament adopts a decision, the President must set a date for the referendum.

On Wednesday, a representative of the largely unknown US enterprise Global Power Consortium, Samuel Reddy, expressed interest in the construction of the cancelled project for the construction of the 2000 MW Belne nuclear power plant.

Center-right ruling party GERB asked Parliament to authorize Delyan Dobrev, Minister of Energy, Economy and Tourism, to conduct negotiations with a private investor for the construction of the nuclear power plant.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) suggested that MPs had to revoke their decision for freezing the project.

Energy » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: Belene NPP, petition, Bulgarian Socialist Party, Referendum, Global Power Consortium, Samuel Reddy, BSP, Lilyana Pavlova, Regional Development Minister

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria