The government’s commitments for the material and technical provision of tomorrow’s parliamentary elections are being fulfilled publicly, transparently and on time. This was assured by the Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov to representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
He emphasized that the official cabinet is in constant dialogue with the Central Election Commission, which is responsible for organizing the elections.
According to him, this is the most strictly verified vote so far – there are many times more authenticated voting machines compared to previous elections. For the first time, at the insistence of the executive power, the CEC allowed representatives of the media into the warehouse for storing the machines during the inspections. The official cabinet has taken unprecedented measures to ensure the security and transparency of the vote tomorrow, the minister pointed out.
The PACE delegation is visiting our country to monitor the early parliamentary elections. International election observers provide additional guarantees for the integrity of the vote. They were informed of the fulfilled commitments of all responsible ministries regarding organizational and technical training.
The government’s proposals were presented to the CEC to upgrade the rules and procedures to ensure a transparent and democratic vote. It was emphasized that the public council at the CEC 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 – 3306 verified machines compared to 664 in the last vote. DANS 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 polling day at the Sectional Election Commissions – for example, the voice messages that will alert SEC members in case the devices’ batteries are running low and they need to be plugged in power supply.
The PACE delegation was informed about the requested assistance from the CEC for the destruction by the municipal and regional administrations of the paper for machine voting from previous elections and about the public position of the BNB Printing Office that the paper for these elections meets all requirements. GRAO 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 the necessary organization to protect public order and ensure the security of the electoral process and to prevent and counter 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 to protect public order. The meeting also reported on the creation of the National Interdepartmental Unit between the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior and the State Security Service, which coordinates and interacts between the institutions for legality in the conduct of the elections.
The Ministry of the Interior opened a 24-hour hotline for alerts related to violations of the electoral process. Until 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 CEC, which after the election day receives, processes and sends the protocols of the work of the CECs 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.
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