„It is of great importance to all of us that these elections produce a sustainable and responsible governing majority to undertake the important reforms. It is important that it enjoys high legitimacy, which requires high voter turnout. And this requires both an active campaign and responsible work of the election administration and the state, which gives confidence in the honesty and accessibility of the electoral process.“
This was announced by President Rumen Radev during a meeting with the institutions responsible for the production of the early parliamentary vote on October 2. He emphasized that he is the main task of the caretaker government appointed by him.
„First of all, trust in the machine vote should be increased. It showed its effectiveness in the invalid vote. It also contributed to the reduction of the bought vote. However, a clear methodology is needed to give confidence to the parties and citizens in any manipulations with the machines – from storage, to transportation, voting and reporting of the result. An active information campaign about the machine voting is also necessary, and I hope that all the materials will be prepared on time and that the media will commit to their broadcast,“ the head of state also pointed out. And added:
„The two caretaker governments have shown that it is possible to wage an effective fight against the bought vote, and I am sure that this will be a priority for the current government and the security agencies, which have gained experience and now not only neutralize the buyers, but also manage to reach higher. In addition, every Bulgarian abroad, regardless of where he is, should be able to exercise his vote. The CEC is the main body for the elections, but their holding is impossible without the active participation and support of the executive power.“
„In my opinion and my colleagues in the CEC, the interaction with the bodies of the executive power is part of the general process for good governance to produce elections. Without it, the CEC, as the main body, would not be able to carry out its functions, so that together with the other bodies and institutions, we can increase the confidence in the electoral process, namely that the citizens who have electoral rights can exercise it calmly and are confident that there is no doubt of the vote“, pointed out the chairperson of the Central Electoral Commission /CEC/ Kamelia Neikova.
She explained that the specific activities are related to machine voting and especially to the storage of the devices themselves, because:
„This is a problem that has been raised repeatedly since the beginning of the year. Because the Electoral Code stipulates that the responsibility for storage rests with the Council of Ministers, and the CEC has only control functions. Voting outside the country is an important issue that I hope we can solve together in a way that makes it easier to organize the elections there, so that the members of the SECs do not have to wait until the morning. The Ministry of e-Governance, in our view, has an important role to play in machine voting on software issues. They have responsibilities related to authentication of the voting software. We have held meetings with these institutions and have begun the issues that need to be resolved.“
The official Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev, who was designated by the government’s decision to be in charge of conducting the elections, also took part in the meeting.
„The Ministry of the Interior is aware of both its powers and responsibilities in the electoral process. We are determined to ensure that citizens have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. There are accumulated good practices from the previous two offices. Our desire is to respond to the new practices of distorting the vote of voters. The Ministry of the Interior has created an action plan. Tasks are distributed and we are ready to interact with all institutions. I assure the Bulgarian citizens that I, as the person in charge of this activity, will do everything necessary to ensure a consistent and secure election process, as well as a lawful conclusion of the elections, so that there is confidence in the result,“ he said.
„The ministry has a proven sustainable model for organizing elections abroad. We learn from problems, but at the same time we rely on the same people and procedures that have proven to be good. An Elections Working Group was established. It covers the entire spectrum of activities in terms of logistics and in this regard we rely mainly on the same people as last year. We immediately instructed the overseas offices to request permits or be notified in which we have offices or not, but we have relations. We have already received consents, which are probably about a dozen at the moment. On this basis, we expect the opening of around 700 to 750 sections. But the ministry is preparing for the organization of about 800 sections so that we have some advance. This makes us the largest Regional Election Commission again, but on the condition that they are scattered on all continents and thousands of kilometers away”, explained the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Milkov from his side.
He indicated that the amount of over 7 million and 635 thousand BGN was allocated to the department for the production of the vote abroad and, according to him, it will be completely sufficient. As for the vote in Russia, Milkov expressed hope that there would be no problems there, and in Ukraine they would rely on the Bulgarian community there.
