site.btaCertification of Machines for April 19 Elections Begins, Electronic Government Ministry Says

The Ministry of Electronic Government said on Tuesday that certification is beginning for the type of voting machines to be used in the parliamentary elections on April 19. To this end, the three institutions designated by the Election Code - the Ministry of Electronic Government, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization and the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology - have been provided with 10 machines by the Central Election Commission.

This follows the completion of a public consultation on a draft updated methodology for certifying that this type of technical devices for machine voting complies with the requirements of the Election Code and the technical specification. The methodology was approved by the Ministry of Electronic Government and the two institutes. The updated methodology, its annexes, and the proposals and opinions submitted during the public consultation have been published on the Ministry's website.

George Sharkov, the caretaker Minister of Electronic Government, who also coordinates the organization of the elections, said on Monday that the software code will be fully inspected on 100% of the installed voting machines, instead of 30% as before. To do this, the Ministry will rely on an additional team of some 60 specialists from the public administration.