site.btaDemocratic Bulgaria Submits Bill for Fully Machine-Based Voting and Removal of Cap on Polling Stations Outside EU

Democratic Bulgaria has submitted draft amendments to the Election Code providing for fully machine-based voting in all types of elections and the removal of restrictions on the number of polling stations in countries outside the European Union, the coalition's press office said on Friday.

According to Democratic Bulgaria, the changes should be adopted before the start of the campaign for the next presidential election.

The bill proposes that voting in parliamentary, presidential, local and European Parliament elections be conducted exclusively by machine, both in Bulgaria and abroad.

Paper ballots would remain available only in polling stations with fewer than 300 voters, as well as in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, aboard vessels and in cases involving mobile ballot boxes.

Under the proposed amendments, data generated by machine voting would become an integral part of the section election commission protocol. The bill would also repeal a restriction introduced earlier this year limiting polling stations outside the EU to a maximum of 20.

In the explanatory memorandum, the coalition argues that the proposed changes would significantly reduce the number of invalid ballots and errors in election protocols.

The authors of the bill also refer to a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria, which partially annulled the 2024 parliamentary election because of numerous errors in the counting and recording of valid votes.

Amendments to the Election Code were adopted at the end of February after a presidential veto.

President Iliana Iotova justified the veto mainly with objections to provisions limiting the number of polling stations outside diplomatic and consular missions in non-EU countries to 20.

The amendments were ultimately approved by 126 MPs, while 86 voted against and 11 abstained, leaving the restriction in place.