Parliament discusses amendments in the Penalty Code, under which buying votes in elections would be punished with imprisonment.

Pavel Shopov from the ultra-nationalist movement Ataka proposed the amendments, mediapool.bg said. He demanded imprisonment and fines for those who buy or sell votes.

The amendments envision imprisonment for up to three years or probation for vote-buyers. Imprisonment for up to two years or probation will punish the vote-seller.

Members of the Parliament said that the ruling coalition and opposition parties seemed to support the idea, but it was “still-born” because it was impossible to verify or prove votes’ trade.

Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Maya Manolova said that the punishment was unrealistic. She proposed fines of 200 to 1000 leva and one year of imprisonment.

Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Yanaki Stoilov agreed with Manolova, but said that financial sanctions would be useless as no one would pay them.

Parliament will vote the amendments on October 18 2007. If they are approved, they would go into force once they are published in the state newspaper.