The Central Election Commission (CEC) will allow video broadcasting from the counting of ballots in the April 4th parliamentary elections and allow independent experts to check the voting machines, and the legislator to lift the ceiling of 35 sections for non-EU countries. This was called for by representatives of Democratic Bulgaria.
“One would think that ensuring fair and transparent elections in Bulgaria would be the first concern of the government, but they do not want you to vote. They want you to be disgusted, not to believe in the election process, to stay at home and through a low turnout to let the election result be determined by those masses controlled, bought, coterie vote”, said coalition co-chair Hristo Ivanov.
He recalled the formation’s efforts to allow real-time video broadcasting from the counting of ballots. Following the CEC’s tacit ban, the issue was left without consideration by the Sofia Administrative Court, and Democratic Bulgaria is now appealing the ruling. The lawyer Nadezhda Yordanova explained that after the end of the voting there is no obstacle for video broadcasting, because there is no violation of the secrecy of the vote, and each of the members of the section commissions performs duties under the law, is registered and in this case the observation does not affect the performance of official duties. She added:
„We insist that video surveillance is a mission possible.“
Hristo Ivanov stated the union’s support for the petition of Bulgarians abroad to remove the restriction of 35 polling stations in non-EU countries. He pointed out that only on the basis of the applications submitted for voting in the UK so far, 60 sections can be opened.
“These are our fellow citizens who want to keep in touch with Bulgaria and their participation in the political future of the country. And we, if we want to be a really big country, we must give them this opportunity, otherwise we will again become victims of this process for Bulgaria to be reduced, reduced to the level of these groups of controlled vote, which serve the government so well”, said Ivanov.
Coalition officials today called on the CEC to allow independent experts to audit voting machines. At the beginning of the year, Democratic Bulgaria made such a proposal and provided the CEC with a written procedure on how the audit could be carried out.
“The central election commission has not yet considered our proposal. Formal audit is the right thing to do, but it needs to be extended to the supervision of independent experts. It is important for the trust in the election process that these machines really are not black boxes, but that we have confidence that they work properly”, said IT expert Bozhidar Bojanov. And Ivanov called:
“The restoration of statehood goes through elections, but if these elections do not generate confidence precisely because of such a stubborn reluctance to take even minimal measures, in fact they will not restart, revive the Bulgarian statehood, but will only deepen the problem. We strongly call for: allow video surveillance, enable external experts to participate in the audit of machines and give a guarantee to the public that these machines can really be trusted by citizens. And most importantly, remove the limit of 35 sections abroad. Bulgarians, our fellow citizens abroad, want to vote, they want to exercise their democratic rights. We must give them an opportunity.”
