site.btaCentral Election Commission Deputy Chair: No Vote Rigging Reported

Interviewed on Bulgarian National Television on Friday, Central Election Commission (CEC) Deputy Chair and spokesperson Rositsa Mateva said there were no reports of vote rigging during the April 19 parliamentary elections. 

She added that she could comment on hypothetical assumptions about manipulation of the result of Siyanie (Radiance), expressed by the leader of the civil movement Nikolay Popov.

"We hope that there will be no appeals of the results, because the assessment of international observers, the caretaker government and others is positive," Mateva commented.

Regarding a case in Montana, in which a member of a section election commission (SEC) cast 10 ballots on behalf of other persons, Mateva explained that there were eight more SEC members on site there. "I do not understand why the others did nothing. If someone cast 10 ballots, it means that the others did not act promptly. Once the ballots were in the boxes, there is no way to find and remove them," she added.

According to Mateva, there should have been an immediate reaction from the other SEC members and observers on site. Apart from this case, no other such case have been reported on election day - this is just one case out in nearly 13,000 voting sections, the CEC spokesperson also said. Regarding replacements of SEC members, Mateva said that all were made based on personal refusal. "There were much fewer replacements, but again some were made after the SEC members were elected and trained," she said.

Asked about the election-related work of the caretaker government, she said that the CEC always finds a way to work with the caretaker cabinets. "There were some with which we worked much better," she commented.

Mateva also said that she believes the elections were conducted well, normally and fairly. There was no tension and no problems with the Public Council to the CEC this time. "The Public Council gave its recommendations on time and we sorted out many things. There was good communication," she said.

"On May 12, the term of this CEC ends. These five years saw numerous elections – 12 national and 107 by-elections. I think we did well," added Mateva.