Protesters’ daily demands for the resignation of the government and the Prosecutor General, as well as for machine voting in the upcoming elections, raise the question of whether it is technically possible to provide such machines until the elections. Veselin Todorov, the executive director of the company that provided the voting machines for the European elections, commented on the topic to “NOVA”.
At this stage, funding for the machines has not yet been provided, but a bill to amend the Electoral Code has been introduced. If they are accepted, machines will be taken for all sections with more than 300 voters, and people will have the opportunity to vote either on paper or by machine.
Todorov calculated that under these conditions, about 9,000 machines would be needed (10,000 if a reserve is made). However, in order for them to arrive for the next elections, the Central Election Commission had to place an order. Whether our country wanted to buy them or just rent them, the manufacturing and delivery procedure would take 5-6 months.
The CEO believes that if an order is placed in early September, there will be no problem with the equipment arriving by March. If the CEC had waited for the elections to be scheduled, which took place two months before them, it would not have been possible to provide machine voting. Todorov explained that there was a faster procedure and it was possible to provide the equipment for early elections, if the order was made in the first days of next month.
