GERB suspects manipulation of voting machines in October 2 elections and insists on a check

The source code of the software used for the machine voting in the October 2, 2022 early parliamentary elections should be made available to all authorized observers and other interested officials, GERB party (which in coalition with UDF won the elections) insisted in a letter to the Central Election Commission (CEC), the Ministry of Electronic Governance and the company that maintains the devices - Siela Norma AD.

The reason for the request are suspicions that the voting machines have been manipulated.

"The machines have been tampered with. I hope the CEC will refute me and allow computer specialists from all parties to go and see what happens to the software when you have the code. Let them open and look so that we don't have these doubts," GERB leader Boyko Borissov said during a visit to Stara Zagora on October 10.

"In this way it will become clear, for example, whether 70,000 voters really went to the polls to choose "I do not support anyone," party leader Boyko Borissov stressed.

Despite the accusation, Boyko Borissov said that GERB would not refer the matter to the prosecutor's office because, in his words, it "should not be an instrument of political parties".

The GERB-UDF continues to expect representatives of "We Continue the Change" and "Democratic Bulgaria" at the contact group talks on forming a majority.

"We must all humble ourselves, the election results show. People are scared, tired - you see explosions in Kiev, they pushed Putin's most personal thing - the bridge in Crimea. The war is getting more violent and scary. We need a government and a Parliament, and that is why we have proposed neutral people - proven neutral, because it is clear that we do not like each other, otherwise we would be in the same party. I have great respect for “Vazrazhdane” and it would be much easier to work with them because they are serious people. The problem there is ideological, because we have nothing to stand on as temples - they are in favour of a referendum on our membership of NATO, against Bulgaria’s joining the euro area and against helping Ukraine. These are things that contradict our first points in the programme, and on them we have a coincidence with “We Continue the Change”, “Democratic Bulgaria” and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. That is where we are looking for opportunities," Borissov said.

He reiterated that GERB does not propose a coalition because it is impossible.

"But there are policies, 5 - 6 things on which we can have consensus and get the country through the crisis. Because if we do not succeed with the mandate, it cannot happen with the other two," Borissov noted.