A protest in Sofia called for 100% machine voting in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The demonstration was organised by We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria (WCC–DB) and received support from all opposition parties in the 51st Parliament.
The goal of the protest was to demand fully machine-based voting to prevent election manipulation. WCC–DB opposed the recently proposed introduction of scanning devices into the voting process, as well as the purchase of entirely new machines for the elections, arguing that implementing such changes would take too much time.
On a specially constructed stage with a video screen, organisers even broadcast a BNT report highlighting electoral irregularities in paper-based voting.
The protesters gathered at the “Triangle of Power” under the slogan “You Will Not Rig These Elections Either.” They insisted on 100% machine voting and rejected the use of optical scanners.
Ivaylo Belchev said:
“Completely machine-based voting without paper ballots, without printers. Because elections are being falsified through paper ballots. I pulled statistics myself from the CEC website—one-sixth invalid votes is a lot. With scanners, all the schemes currently used with paper ballots remain.”
Slaveya Kotova added:
“The posters are to prevent rigged elections. I’m concerned about what happened in the previous elections, what we saw on the cameras, and the fact that polling station staff don’t hesitate to tamper with ballots.”
Another protester said:
“Even a fossil like me can vote with machines and I want machine voting. I’m fed up with ballot tampering. I watched recordings from election day, where polling station staff altered the results after the polls closed. There’s a BNT report showing clearly that votes were tampered for GERB, MRF—whoever was paid for what. That’s why I came to demand machine voting.”
Nikolay Vasev added:
“This is the best way to ensure transparent and fair elections in Bulgaria.”
According to 'We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria', the government is pushing for optical scanners because they allow room for manipulation.
Photo by BTA
Bozhidar Bozhanov (WCC–DB) said:
“Our demand is to reject these scanners because they either lead to 100% paper voting or preserve all the existing vote-buying schemes.”
Ivaylo Mirchev (WCC–DB) added:
“Boyko Borissov is a political fraud and does whatever Peevski tells him. It doesn’t matter what he posts on Facebook. If Peevski wants ballot boxes, he’ll want ballot boxes; if he wants machine voting, he’ll want machine voting. He has no independent thinkingt. The important thing is the strength of the protest and that we don’t allow the elections to be rigged.”
He also said:
“It makes sense for both Borissov and Peevski to support our protest and oppose election fraud—or at least that’s what they declare. If that’s true, they should back 100% machine voting, because they introduced it, not us. They should trust each other.
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