site.btaMECh Leader: Better Not to Amend Election Code in This Parliament

It would have been better not to take up the Election Code in this parliament and to leave it in its previous form, which was a position defended only by us, said Radostin Vasilev, leader of Morality, Unity, Honor (MECh), speaking to journalists in the corridors of Parliament on Wednesday.

"This is sabotage of the elections," Vasilev said in reference to Tuesday’s meeting of the parliamentary committee on constitutional and legal affairs, which lasted 13 hours and discussed at second reading the bill amending the Election Code.

"We left the committee around 11:00 p.m. because it became clear there was no substantive debate and that arguments from MECh were not being heard. In my view, their idea is to eliminate machine voting and to move toward 100% paper-based voting," Vasilev said.

According to him, there will be no time for the scanning devices to be certified and tested, nor for the public to be properly informed about how they would be used.

Vasilev also said that shutting down the Anti-Corruption Commission one month before elections is not how a rule-of-law state operates. In his view, the reason for dissolving the commission is likely that it failed to serve either GERB or Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria.

He further commented that there will be no transfer of voters, experts, or political support from MECh to any political project associated with President Rumen Radev.