The Civic e-Governance Platform (www.bluelink.net/vote) is an Internet-based platform for election of representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in working groups and committees at the institutions dealing with environmental and sustainable development policies elaboration and implementation in Bulgaria – Ministry of Environment and Waters, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture. At the present moment, there are 19 state institutions, commissions and funds, which have invited representatives of environmental NGOs to participate in their working meetings. Before the development of this platform the voting process for NGO representatives was carried by email, fax and regular mail. During the period 2002-2005 and after the National Conference of environmental and sustainable development NGOs, Sofia 2002 the functions of elections Secretariat were performed by Time Foundation (until 2004), and at present – by BlueLink.net.
In order to facilitate the nongovernmental organizations in Bulgaria in the election of their representatives in the different state structures BlueLink, in consultation with other NGOs, developed an electronic voting platform. The platform, which was launched in March, 2005 was created with funding provided by the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (www.rec.org). It aims at providing a bigger transparency both in the election process of NGO representatives, and the work of state institutions, since the elected NGO representatives who participate in their working meetings will prepare regular reports, which will be accessible from the platform.
The Civic e-Governance Platform allows NGOs to nominate candidates, to vote and to obtain information on the active candidates in the different commissions and working groups, as well as to get acquainted with their reports. In order to nominate a candidate, to vote and communicate with the active representatives, the organizations have to register in the on-line system. A right to participate in the platform is granted to every organization, which is registered in accordance with the Law on Non-for-Profit Legal Persons and works in areas like: environmental issues, nature protection, and sustainable development.
Elections for NGO representatives are conducted when the respective institution invites a representative of the environmental NGO community to participate in a given working group or committee dealing with environmental issues and/or problems. The opportunity for an electronic voting is an alternative, which facilitates the election process and makes it more transparent and accessible to all NGOs having access to the Internet.
The purpose of the Civic e-Governance Platform is to support the public participation in the decision-making process on environmental and sustainable development problems through the devising of a transparent, accessible and flexible tool for election of NGO representatives in different state organs and institutions. The long-term goal is this platform to be presented to institutions and nongovernmental organizations working in sectors other then environment, in order to be used for elections of NGO representatives in governmental committees and structures in all ministries, which are open to working together with civic organizations and citizens.
