President Radev: Active information campaign for the machine voting is needed

It is important the upcoming elections to produce a sustainable government that will address the urgent reforms and the adoption of strategic decisions for the country, Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev said on August 9 at a working meeting with the ministers and representatives of the institutions responsible for the organisation and holding of the early parliamentaryelections on October 2.

"It is of great importance for all of us that these elections produce a stable and responsible governing majority that will take up the urgent reforms and make strategic decisions for our country. It is also important that this majority enjoys high legitimacy. And that comes from high voter turnout. A high turnout requires both active campaigning and engagement by the parties and the candidates, with clear programmes and messages to attract voters, and responsible work by the electoral administration and the state, giving confidence in the fairness, transparency and accessibility of the electoral process. First and foremost, this means increasing confidence in the machine voting. The machine voting has proven its effectiveness in drastically reducing the number of invalid votes, and the number of erroneous and manipulated protocols has also contributed to the reduction of vote-buiyng," President Radev said at the beginning of the meeting.

Bulgaria’s President set October 2 as the date for early general elections

He said that an active awareness campaign about the machine voting was needed. In his words, clear methodology, public and transparent actions are needed to give parties and members of the public the confidence in the absence of any manipulation of the machines at all stages of the preparation and conduct of the elections - from the storage of the machines through the loading of the software and keys to the transportation, voting and reporting of the result.

"There is also a need for an active awareness campaign on machine voting and I hope that all the explanatory materials for this campaign will be produced on time and accordingly I hope that the media will commit to airing them regularly," the President clarified.

He recalled that the elections organised by the two caretaker governments last year showed that it was possible to wage a result-oriented war against vote-buying.

"I am confident that the fight against this unacceptable phenomenon in a democratic country will be a priority of both the current caretaker government and the law enforcement bodies," Rumen Radev further said.

This year, he expects the Foreign Ministry with the help of the state administration to give every Bulgarian citizen abroad the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.

Central Election Commission Chairwoman, Kamelia Neykova, reported the storage of voting machines as a problem.

"The Electoral Code stipulates that the responsibility for storing the machines is assigned to the Council of Ministers. The Central Election Commission (CEC) has only control functions and there is no way that CEC can be charged with both the storage and the control of this storage," she said.

Another problem for the CEC is the voting abroad, and more specifically the acceptance of electoral protocols so that members of electoral commissions do not wait until the morning.

Caretaker Minister of Interior, Ivan Demerdzhiev, said they will use all best practices to ensure the election process is conducted legally. He seeks to stop new practices to distort the voters' vote and to bring those responsible to justice.

The Ministry of Interior has created an action plan, the tasks have been allocated, Demerdzhiev said.

"I will do everything necessary, together with the institution entrusted to me, to ensure a lawful secure process, the peaceful conduct of the electoral process, as well as an orderly conclusion of the elections so that there is confidence and legitimacy of the result," he added.

Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolai Milkov said an Elections Working Group had been established to cover the spectrum of CEC operations abroad as well as logistics. It relies on the same people from last year. Instructions have been given to the overseas representations to get permission to hold the elections.

Consents have already been received, about ten, but there will be more. We expect 700 to 750 polling stations to be opened but the ministry is preparing to organise around 800 polling stations, the caretaker foreign minister said.

He also said that a sum of more than BGN 7 million 635 thousand has been allocated for the organisation and conduct of the elections abroad.

Milkov believes that there will be no problems with the requested polling stations in Russia. There are usually 4 - 5 organised, now there could be probably 3.

Regarding Ukraine, we do not have an embassy, but we have asked for consent here in Bulgaria through the Ukrainian embassy. We will rely on the activity of the Bulgarian community because the posting is in the context of an existing military risk. Milkov called for the paperwork to be prepared quickly so that the deployment can be organised.

The 2 October snap polls will cost 70.5 million BGN.

The caretaker government has already approved the cost of preparing and producing the elections.

The approved funds amount to BGN 70.5 million. The National Assembly did not vote on a change in the Electoral Code and voting will be by machines only in polling stations with more than 300 voters.

Ballot papers will also be printed and will come into use if the machine fails because it cannot be replaced. Estimates suggest that there will be around 800 polling stations abroad, in more than 65 countries.