Yesterday, January 21st, 2016, at its regular plenary the National Assembly adopted a resolution endorsing the alternative to vote remotely by electronic means, when elections and referendums are hold. This will be stipulated in accordance to the legal guarantees for the secrecy of the vote, the civilian control of the election process and the security of information systems. The vote was attended by 192 members of parliament, of which 136 were "for" and 56 - "against".

By February 29th, the Legal Affairs Committee should discuss at a first reading all incoming and new bills related to the Electoral Code, including bills providing for the inclusion of remote electronic voting. The Law Commission should examine and explore all the possibilities and procedures for electronic voting systems currently in EU law.

By the end of April 2016, the Legal Committee should give a report on the second reading of the adopted at the first reading bills on the Electoral Code.      

Earlier in the week, on the 19th of January, the draft decision was approved at a meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee as a result of the conducted referendum, together with the local elections in October 2015, which gained over 20 percent of the vote. More than half of the votes - 1,883,411 people voted "yes" when asked whether they are in favour for voting to be available remotely by electronic means. As the respondents did not exceed the threshold of a voting participation in a recent parliamentary election, according to the Law on Direct Participation of Citizens in government and local government, the final decision on the matter had to be decided by the National Assembly.

The report of the meeting of the Legal Affairs Committee can be downloaded from here.