© Lily Touchek
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Stand up BG! We are coming! “And” Democratic Bulgaria “will file an appeal today to the Supreme Administrative Court against the repeated decision of the Central Election Commission (CEC) to manually count all receipts from the machine voting, the two formations announced.
The CEC made this decision late last night, 36 hours before the start of election day at the suggestion of Deputy Chairman Emil Voinov (BSP). 12 people voted in favor (four representatives of GERB, three from BSP, two from MRF and three from “There is such a people”), and three – the two representatives of Democratic Bulgaria and the participant from “Stand up BG! We are coming, “they said.
The commission had once decided to manually count 100% of the receipts, but the decision fell in court again after an appeal by both parties.
Emil Voynov explained in an interview with BTV this morning that his idea to offer a 100% counting of receipts is to dispel public suspicions about possible vote manipulation. He himself assured that he was absolutely sure that the machine voting would be fair. According to him, the election results will be reported by removing them from the technical device, and “counting the receipts and entering them in a special appendix will help the voter to be sure that he is the same and will strengthen the confidence in the election process.”
Maya Manolova from “Stand up BG! We are coming!” Has the opposite opinion. In a statement posted on Facebook, she noted that the receipts from the machines were very similar to receipts, were not protected in any way and could easily be falsified. In addition, according to her, it will not be possible to control who counts what. She reminded that one of the arguments for the introduction of machine voting is “not to count the hands of party representatives”.
According to Voinov, the counting of the receipts will be quick and will not delay the announcement of the result. According to Manolova – will extend the stay of participants in the section commissions indoors in the conditions of covid – crisis.
“If I want to discredit the election, I vote for parliament and for president and then I make only one note. Then? The PEC cannot ask me what I voted for because it is related to the secrecy of the vote. Observers cannot be with me, there is no way to watch me “, commented on the social network the secretary of the president Dimitar Stoyanov.
The hand count has shown its shortcomings over the years, Justice Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told Darik. According to him, the decision “is not a mistake, but a purposeful strategy – conceived, planned and implemented”, and the goal is “to push people away from the election process, which will remain in a closed circle”. “In the face of the executive, the state has done everything to assure people that the elections will be fair,” Demerdzhiev said, reminding that it is not good to change the rules at the last minute.
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