site.btaCC-DB: Ruling Majority Carrying Out Attack Against Election Process

The ruling majority is carrying out an attack against the election process by proposing voting with scanners that even they do not know how they work, Yes, Bulgaria co-chair and Co-Floor Leader of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) Bozhidar Bozhanov told journalists on Wednesday, commenting on Tuesday’s 13-hour meeting of Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. At that meeting, MPs debated at second reading draft amendments to the Election Code.

Bozhanov said that Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski and GERB leader Boyko Borissov have tasked their "subcontractors from There Is Such a People (TISP) with doing the dirty work", while the MRF - New Beginning is hiding from any debate. The plan is to bring back the paper ballot as punishment for the protest that brought down the government, Bozhanov added.

According to CC-DB MP Stoyu Stoev, their real goal is disguised behind these optical ballot-scanning devices, because what they will achieve at the upcoming elections is that people will vote on paper and the ballots will be counted by the distric election commissions. He stressed that GERB is trying to "throw dust in people’s eyes" by claiming that if the authorities cannot secure voting with the new machines, they would revert to the previous procedure, but that this is impossible because the Central Election Commission’s deadlines for introducing machine voting will expire.

Continue the Change leader Assen Vassilev said that with the provisions that were adopted, the second stamp on the ballot is removed, as is the comparison between the ballot number and the roll, which means that ballots not issued by the Commission can be brought in. The certification of the so-called new scanners is also removed.

"We see that those who lost the trust of Bulgarian citizens know that they will lose the elections as well. The only way to stop them is the way we stopped the budget. When this bill reaches the plenary hall, we must be ready to protest and declare that the elections will not be stolen," Vassilev said.

"If the Central Election Commission realizes too late that it cannot use the new machines, then it will not be able to use the old ones either, because that takes 55 days, and the only remaining option will be voting on paper," he stressed.