site.btaMovement for Rights and Freedoms Proposes Optical Ballot Scanners

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) proposed introducing optical ballot scanners, the party said on Friday. The proposal was submitted between the bill’s first and second readings.

MRF said the scanners combined the advantages of paper and machine voting and had proved reliable, having been used for voting in the United States and other countries.

MRF said the existing voting machines had been discredited worldwide, across Europe and in Bulgaria. The party added that previous elections had seen numerous problems with machines that failed to work or even start on election day.

The use of these machines created serious public doubts about the integrity of elections, as hundreds of discrepancies had been found between official tally sheets and voting receipts, and the devices were widely seen as tools for manipulating and stealing votes, MRF said.

BTA recalls that Parliament approved four bills amending the Election Code at first reading on July 16, 2026, and rejected two others. Lawmakers backed the restoration of full machine voting, the abolition of the Abroad constituency and the removal of the cap on polling stations in non-EU countries.