The Minister of Innovation and Growth, Rosen Karadimov, appointed as the coordinator of the organizational and technical preparation of the elections by the government, sent an official letter to the chairperson of the Central Election Commission, Kamelia Neikova.
The letter contains the Cabinet’s proposals for improving the rules and procedures for ensuring a transparent, democratic and well-organized vote in the upcoming early parliamentary elections, which will be held on October 27, 2024. At the CEC’s discretion, the proposals may be included in relevant decisions of the Commission.
The government proposes to optimize the procedure under Article 213b of the Electoral Code, which regulates the rules for transparency and security of machine voting.
“Representatives of the official executive power have the necessary knowledge and competences with which to upgrade the specified procedure in order to increase confidence in the electoral process,” Minister Karadimov points out in the letter.
Another proposal is to extend the authentication process of Technical Machine Voting Devices (TMVs) by adding the parameterization software and compliance of flash drives, as they are a type of peripheral device and are an integral part of the TUMG during machine voting. voting.
It is also proposed that the supply of the seals for sealing the compartment with the two numbers of flash drives, which contain the most sensitive and generally all information from the elections, as well as guaranteeing the identification of attempts to open the casing of the voting machines, be provided by an independent supplier , other than the machine voting contractor.
The cabinet also recommends keeping a log of seals, in which it is clearly noted which seal number is placed on which place intended to be sealed (eg seal number for the flash drive compartment, case seal number).
The numbers of the seals should be part of the handover protocol for the machines between the SIK and the contractor who delivers the machines to the sections.
In the letter to the CEC, Minister Rosen Karadimov also emphasizes the need for strict compliance with the provisions arising from Art. 213c of the Electoral Code, which regulates the provision of paper for printing ballots from machine voting.
The caretaker government expects to use specialized paper with additional protections for printing ballots from machine voting, which is supplied by “BNB Printing Office” JSC, as well as to continue with the CEC’s well-established practice of using a different specialized paper for each individual national vote paper protection in machine voting.
In this way, trust in citizens, parties, non-governmental organizations, as well as external observers, is guaranteed for a fair and democratic electoral process.
“It is important to follow the procedures for the destruction of the paper left over from previous elections, so that there is no doubt about abuses,” the letter also notes.
Minister Rosen Karadimov also points out that the state administration is ready to assist the CEC in the implementation of Art. 213b of the Electoral Code if necessary and to provide experts with relevant professional experience and expertise from the state administration to support the verification process before the expedition, as in the previous elections.
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