President Georgi Purvanov received mixed reactions from political party leaders on his ideas for changes to the country's electoral system at a round-table discussion held on July 7 2008 in Sofia.

Purvanov called the discussion in light of his intention to ask Parliament to call a referendum on changing the electoralal system if political parties fail to hear his demands. Purvanov wants Parliament to amend the electoral system by introducing a stronger element of majoritarian elections within a mixed electoral system and changes in the political parties' financing.

Among Purvanov's ideas feature proposals for introducing strict criteria for parties that would be allowed to take part in elections. That would include having branches in at least two thirds of all Bulgarian municipalities, and election results of at least one per cent in the previous two elections.

If parties fail to achieve this threshold, they would be erased from the party register and will have to register again, Purvanov has suggested.

Other ideas included setting up if a public register for parties' financing with only individuals allowed to donate funds to parties. As a compensation, Purvanov wants the state subsidy for parties that have won seats in Parliament to be raised.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, who chairs the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), of which Purvanov was the leader prior to being elected President, said that the BSP had already bet on the majority element in the 2007 elections for European Parliament, but thit did not lead to great results.

BSP's partner in the ruling coalition, the National Movement for Stability and Progress, did not accept Purvanov's ideas because, according to NMSP Parliament floor leader Plamen Mollov, "a stronger majoritarian element would lead to more opportunities for vote-buying", mediapool.bg quoted him as saying.

The third partner in the three-way ruling coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, did not share Purvanov's ideas either, which in effect meant that he met a complete lack of support from the ruling majority in Parliament that has the power to introduce the legislative changes he wanted.

The opposition criticised Purvanov as well, although all parties agreed that there should be an end to the vote-buying by introducing tougher penalties for it.

Volen Siderov, leader of ultra-nationalist Ataka party, said that the discussion was Purvanov's latest media stunt.

Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, leader of the biggest party in opposition, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB), asked for strict control on the list with people eligible to vote. "We can't have situations such as the one in Ardino in 2007 when the population of the town was 7000 but the people who voted there was 20 000," he said.

In the end Purvanov, had to concede that "we all seem to be in favor of introducing a stronger majority element in the elections but no one wants to take the responsibility and make the decision in favour of it."