Sociologist and former member of the Central Election Commission of Bulgaria (CEC) Tsvetozar Tomov predicts that the amendments to the Law on the State of Emergency will not provide an opportunity for those who are quarantined to practice their right to vote in elections. He commented that the problems will come from several places. The first is related to the capacity of the election administration:
“More than 20,000 people will not be able to vote with mobile ballot boxes. And the people who would need to vote this way if the election were today are 40,000. In the previous peak of the pandemic, however, they were 150,000… Vaccination of people from the sectional election commissions is impossible. It takes a month after the first vaccine is given to acquire immunity. This means that by the end of February, the authorities need to know which people will be part of the Sectional election commission. This cannot happen. It will also be difficult to find people willing to participate in mobile section committees, because this participation will be particularly dangerous.”
There was also a clear reluctance to introduce voting by mail, Tomov said. According to him, it was the only one that could provide a normal environment for voting. He concluded:
“Maybe because this type of voting is not known, and maybe the ruling party is afraid of increased activity of Bulgarian voters outside the country.”
We remind you that today the deputies finally adopted the legislative changes to determine the conditions of the upcoming parliamentary elections, which will be held in a pandemic. The amendments regulate the voting with mobile ballot boxes of the quarantined. The same will apply to patients in hospitals. They will have to declare their wish to vote in advance and no later than 3 days before election day. Each application will be checked by the Regional Health Inspectorate.
The question remains what will happen to the citizens who will be quarantined on Saturday – the day before the vote.
It is also possible to vote with an expired ID card. Today, the deputies instructed the Minister of Health and the Chief State Health Inspector to determine the anti-epidemic rules for the election process. And for them, the Central Election Commission will have to determine the organization.
