The Ministers of Innovation and Growth, Foreign Affairs and e-Government presented to the PACE delegates the preparations for the elections
The government’s commitments for the material and technical provision of tomorrow’s parliamentary elections are being fulfilled publicly, transparently and on time. The Cabinet is in constant dialogue with the Central Election Commission, which is responsible for organizing the elections. This is the most strictly verified vote ever – there are many times more authenticated voting machines compared to previous elections. For the first time, at the insistence of the executive power, the Central Election Commission allowed representatives of the media into the warehouse for storing the machines during the inspections. We have taken unprecedented measures to ensure the security and transparency of tomorrow’s vote.
This was stated by the Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov on a meeting with of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Kondov and the Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov also took part. By decision of the Council of Ministers, Minister Karadimov was appointed as coordinator for the implementation of the activities for the organizational and technical preparation of the elections on October 27.
The PACE delegation is visiting Bulgaria to observe the early parliamentary elections.
International election observers provide additional guarantees for the integrity of the vote. They were informed in detail about the fulfilled commitments of all responsible ministries regarding organizational and technical preparation.
The government’s proposals to the Central Election Commission were presented to upgrade the rules and procedures to ensure a transparent and democratic vote. It was emphasized that the public council at the Central Election Commission gave a high assessment to the measures taken by the state administration.
Among them are the provided 50 IT specialists from the state administration, who certified significantly more voting machines – 3,306 verified machines compared to 664 in the last vote. The State Agency for National Security again provided observers in the authentication process.
The Ministry of e-Governance has upgraded the process of real-time video surveillance and video recording after the end of the election day in the Sectional Election Commissions. Such as the voice messages that will alert Sectional Election Commission members in the event that devices are running low on battery power and need to be plugged in.
The PACE delegation was informed about the requested assistance from the Central Election Commission for the destruction by the municipal and regional administrations of the paper for machine voting from previous elections and about the public position of „Printing house of the Bulgarian National Bank“ that the paper for these elections meets all the requirements. The Civil Registration and Administrative Services General Directorate verified the voter lists on time, as well as all its obligations.
By order of Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, the Ministry of Internal Affairs created, with complete transparency, the necessary organization for the protection of public order and ensuring the security of the electoral process and for the prevention and counteraction of crimes. More than 15,000 employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been engaged to protect the election commissions, and an additional 453 employees have been engaged to protect public order. The National Interdepartmental Unit was created between the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior and the National Security Agency, which coordinates and interacts between the institutions for legality in the conduct of the elections.
The Ministry of Interior opened a 24-hour hotline for alerts related to violations of the electoral process. As of yesterday, 512 reports of violations of the electoral legislation were received, of which 408 were related to vote buying. 1450 warning protocols were drawn up, 110 pre-trial proceedings were initiated and 51 persons were detained.
Regarding the organization of the vote abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fulfilled all commitments on time. Election papers and materials have been successfully prepared and transported. The organization of the activities of the Communication Center at the Central Election Commission, which after the election day receives, processes and sends the protocols of the work of the Sectional Election Commissions abroad to the Commission, has been optimized. 719 polling stations in 57 countries have been opened.
Regarding voting in places of deprivation of liberty, delegates were informed that 26 polling stations had been opened, with only 4 detention centers not expected to form polling stations due to the small number of detainees – below the legal minimum of 10 people to form a station. Usually more than 97% of persons in places of deprivation of liberty actually exercise their right to vote.
