Bulgaria’s Parliament adopted amendments to the Electoral Code

Bulgaria’s Parliament on September 17 adopted amendments to the Electoral Code at second reading.

The MPs decided that in the next elections people will be able to choose between voting with a machine or a paper ballot.

Although the Central Election Commission (CEC) was against the decision to be tasked with the responsibility to implement the machine voting, according to the amendments in will provide the voting machines by buying or renting them. The question of who will replace Stefka Stoeva as the Head of the CEC remains open. She resigned at the end of August.

As no party proposed a successor to her, a new procedure began.

The numbers in front of the parties, coalitions and initiative committees in the ballots will remain in place.

There is also a change in the election protocols - the government says that the simplification is done on the recommendation of the CEC, the opposition is of the opinion that there will be more mistakes.

Earlier, President Radev said he would veto the Electoral Code.

Whether all these new rules will remain a fact remains to be seen after the President's veto and re-examination of texts of the law.