Right-wing opposition boycott ruined the approval of a draft law for MEPs election on February 8 2007.

Parliamentary represented parties in opposition left the plenary hall and refused to vote the draft law after a five-hour session, mediapool.bg said.

Voting rights of Turkish citizen of Bulgarian origin resident in Turkey caused the discord. Their electoral activity is always high and in support of one of the ruling parties, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). Opposition suspects that their votes are manipulated.

Rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) suggested that only Bulgarians who had lived in the country for the past six months should vote in the MEP elections. This voting principle was accepted by other EU member states like Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania.

Ruling parties said that all Bulgarians with long-term or permanent stay status in the country should vote. Their constitutional rights would be violated if they were deprived of voting right.

The voting procedure will continue on February 9 2007.

Opposition said that it would ask President Georgi Purvanov to veto the law, if the parliament approved it.