The CEC decreed that voting in the elections should be by paper ballots only

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) decided that the local vote on October 29 and a possible second round will be conducted by paper ballots only. The meeting lasted several hours and was broadcast online on the commission's website.

The proposal, with rapporteur Emil Voinov, was accepted with 12 votes "for" and two "against", reports Dir.bg.

Before the vote, the deputy chairman Tsvetozar Tomov made a proposal to give a deadline of 2 hours for a decision by the Ministry of Electronic Government (MEG) on the authentication of the machines.

In connection with the proposed voting method, Voinov indicated that on October 26, information was received from the State Agency "National Security" (SANS), information from the Minister of Electronic Government from a meeting held today, as well as a letter received a while ago from the Minister of e-Government regarding the certification of compliance of the supplied type of device for machine voting with the requirements of the Electoral Code. With this letter, the CEC is informed that at the moment no decision has been issued for certification according to Art. 213 a of the Election Code (EC), Voinov pointed out, quoted by BTA.

The conformity of the machine voting devices is certified by a decision of the MEG, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization and the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology. The existence of such a decision is a mandatory condition for conducting machine voting, he said.

After the CEC adopted a decision "in favor" of voting by paper ballot only, in an explanation of the negative vote, Tsvetozar Tomov stated: "We take this decision without issuing a certification decision according to Article 213 a, based on a letter from Mr. Alexander Yolovski, which is not signed and which is four lines in which we are informed that a decision has not yet been made".

Tomov noted that he made an attempt "to fulfill his obligation under the law" and added that "somehow, that also remained in non-existence". According to him, the problem is not whether the CEC will cancel the machine voting or not.

"The problem is that in all of today's history, the CEC has turned out to be an institution that subordinates its decisions to the will of various political factors," commented Tomov, describing it as shameful. "This is something I cannot accept," he added.

Tomov pointed out that in addition to not having a machine vote on Sunday, the Central Election Commission has decided not to have one in the eventual runoff on November 5. We could decide on just the first round and wait a few days before deciding on the second round, if in the meantime the MEG decides whether or not to certify the software on the machines, he pointed out.

"I categorically disagree that the shameful situation is for the CEC. The CEC was put in this situation as a result of other actions, of other bodies," said the chairperson of the commission, Kamelia Neikova.

She indicated that the received letter was signed with an electronic signature by the Minister of e-Government. I will not agree in any way that the CEC is not aware of the information received from the SANS. The way I reported the information to you was completely correct and all CEC members were aware of its content, she commented.

This was a very difficult decision because I have always supported machine voting as a way of voting. The most important thing is to have confidence in the electoral process, and any action, regardless of who, that creates mistrust and discourages voters from voting, should be prevented, said Neykova.

According to her, it was with this decision that the CEC was able to minimize the risks of voters not going to vote.

She expressed hope that in the next elections the Commission will not be faced with the task of making such a decision. Tomorrow at 2 p.m. the CEC will meet again.

Today's decision of the Central Election Commission was reached after a SANS report to the National Assembly described how Deputy Minister of Electronic Management Mihail Stoinov downloaded the codes for the machines, recorded them with his phone and downloaded them to a flash drive. From "Vazrazhdane", BSP and ITN announced that the elections have already been compromised and demanded that the Central Election Commission cancel the machine voting.

According to unofficial information from BNT, Deputy Minister of Electronic Government Mihail Stoinov was summoned for questioning at the National Security Service, leaving the building around 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon. At this moment, however, there is no official information from either the agency or the prosecutor's office. Stoinov could not be reached on his phone for comment.