Voting in the Presidential Elections This Autumn Will Be Under New Rules

Voters will cast their ballots under new rules at this autumn's presidential election. Parliament gave final approval to the changes by adopting amendments to the Election Code.

Following lengthy debates in the plenary chamber, MPs reached a final decision that the new rules will apply at the presidential election on 25 October. Voting will take place exclusively by machine in polling stations with more than 300 registered voters. In all other polling stations, located in smaller settlements, voters will also have the option of using a paper ballot. Identity card scanners will be introduced to automatically enter voters' details into digital electoral registers.

Stricter rules will also apply to social media. Media organisations will be prohibited from conducting election campaigning or publishing opinion poll data on their official social media accounts. From next year's local elections, voting machines will, for the first time, include audio guidance and dedicated accessibility functions for people with visual impairments. However, the change will not be introduced in time for the presidential election because of the limited time remaining. The abolition of the "Abroad" constituency and the voting arrangements for Bulgarians overseas also prompted renewed debate.

At this autumn's presidential election, voting in polling stations with more than 300 registered voters will take place exclusively by machine.

Tsvetana Karayancheva, GERB-UDF: “By removing paper ballots, you are taking away the opportunity for a large number of Bulgarian citizens to vote, because some of them have never used electronic devices or withdrawn their pensions from a cash machine."

Nikoleta Todorova, “Progressive Bulgaria”:"Stop insulting the intelligence of Bulgarian citizens. The figures show something different – under paper voting there were 400,000 invalid ballots; under the mixed system, more than 50,000; under machine voting, fewer than 0.5% of votes were invalid."

Stoyu Stoev, “We Continue the Change”:"That is precisely the advantage of machine voting – it eliminates invalid ballots.

Bozhidar Bojanov, “Democratic Bulgaria”: "After you reintroduced mixed voting, voter turnout was lower than it was at the first election conducted entirely by machine."

Tsoncho Ganev, Vazrazhdane: "We support machine voting, but only on the explicit condition that it is used everywhere."

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) once again called for voting to be conducted using optical scanning devices.

Aiten Sabri, MRF: "This is a model that combines the speed of automated vote counting with the possibility of a full verification of every vote cast."

Aiten Sabri, DPS: “ This is a model that combines the speed of automated tabulation with the ability to fully verify every vote cast.”

Yanka Tyankova, “Progressive Bulgaria”: “ We know what the country’s financial situation is right now. Such devices cannot be purchased at this stage.”

For next year’s local elections, people with visual impairments will be able to vote independently.

Ivan Yanev, “Progressive Bulgaria”: "The machines will now be able to speak. Voters using paper ballots will be provided with high-quality tactile templates."

The amendments also provide for the abolition of the "Abroad" electoral constituency, as well as the removal of the limit on the number of polling stations in countries outside the European Union. The Ministry of the Interior will no longer be responsible for certifying election software, while media organisations will be prohibited from publishing opinion poll data on their official social media accounts.