Parliament extended its working hours until the amendments to the Electoral Code are conclusively adopted

After an 18-hour debate on first-reading amendments to the Electoral Code, which went on until midnight on Thursday, the Parliament did not adopt the changes to the Electoral Code and the voting continues today, December 2. MPs decided to extend their working hours until the bill is adopted conclusively.

The majority in the Parliament rejected the proposal of “Democratic Bulgaria” to add the data from the machine voting to the tally sheets of polling stations election commisions.

Instead of voter-verified paper record, machines will print out ballots. They will be counted manually after the close of the polls, along with the paper ballots cast and the preferences.

"The data from the machines are important controls showing that the polling stations election commissions counted correctly," said Bozhidar Bozhanov of “Democratic Bulgaria”.

"We trust the people, we don't think that the polling station election commissions are organized criminal groups and mobs. Machines are not more important than people," countered Radomir Cholakov of the GERB group.

"Machines are becoming printers, we have bought printers for 80 million BGN," said Peter Kulenski of the “We Continue the Change” group.

"A good employee is not worried about his work being checked," said Alexander Nikolov of “Bulgaria Ascending”.

Yesterday, the MPs decided:

• At the next elections, both paper ballots and voting machines will be used.
• Multi-member constituency "Abroad" remains, but without clarity on the number of seats, how they will be determined.
• Results from machines will be recorded on USB flash drive.
• The voting booths should be replaced with screens
• There will be video recording on election day.
• Applications to open a polling station abroad remain at 40.