site.btaPoliticians Comment on Possible Changes to Election Rules

Hours before Election Code amendments would be considered by the parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on Wednesday, politicians commented on ideas concerning possible changes to election rules. Machine voting and its possible abolition, preservation or transformation were the central issues discussed in the comments. The committee meeting was eventually called off.

Proposals to revise Bulgaria's Election Code have been made in connection with the prospect of early parliamentary elections this spring. Snap elections seem inevitable following the December 12 resignation of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov's government and considering the reluctance of parliamentary groups mandated by President Rumen Radev to form another regular government under the current 51st National Assembly.

Continue the Change leader Assen Vassilev said that the most suitable date for elections is March 29 and warned of attempts to sabotage machine voting with unfeasible plans for introducing new vote counting devices. Vasilev described the planned introduction of a new type of voting machine in under two months as a "most dangerous" move. According to him, new machines cannot be introduced in such a short time; the plan is actually aimed at reverting to a paper-only voting technology by making it impossible to use new machines in these elections. Vassilev blamed the alleged sabotage on GERB, MRF - New Beginning, and There Is Such a People.

BSP-United Left MP Nataliya Kiselova said that the Election Code should not be amended, warning that last-minute changes could pose risks. Kiselova said that, with nine parliamentary groups, many members of the polling station commissions might only be there in name and may not actively help run the elections. "Any change to any law at the last moment can carry risks," the former parliament chair noted. 

According to Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov, the draft amendments to the Election Code tabled in parliament are nothing less than large-scale election fraud. The proposed revisions eliminate the human factor entirely, reducing the role of election commissions at polling stations solely to copying the protocol generated by scanning machines. The proposal of the Vazrazhdane party is to have machines that are controlled by the election commission, which would check and count the ballots and compare them with the data from the voting machine's protocol. According to Kostadinov, this way the machine and the people in the commission will control each other, and this is the surest way to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.

MECh leader Radostin Vasilev said it would be best not to touch the Election Code in this parliament, with this majority. Vasilev sees an attempt to sabotage the voting machines used in elections. In order to prevent their use, so-called “counting devices” are being introduced at polling stations, he said. Fair elections can only be held by a majority that genuinely wants fair elections, regardless of the outcome, Vasilev argued.