site.btaMunicipal Administrations to Provide Polling Screens for April 19 Elections

The polling screens for the April 19 early parliamentary elections are to be provided by the municipal administrations on a decentralized basis on financing from the cost estimate for the elections, the Central Election Commission (CEC) decided at a meeting on Friday.

On Thursday CEC Deputy Chair Rositsa Mateva said that caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov had answered the Commission that polling screens for voting by paper ballots are an element of the polling site equipment, which is why the municipal administrations are responsible for their provision and, therefore, the Council of Ministers is of the opinion that the manufacture of the screens should not be ordered by the Council of Ministers on a centralized basis. Mateva then commented that the Council of Ministers had informed CEC that it will not fulfil its obligation to provide polling screens for the voting sections.

After the first meeting between Gurov and the CEC leadership on February 20, the PM said that better arrangements require using standard-size screens that should be provided centrally so as to have the same screens in all sections. 

A day later, CEC Chair Kameliya Neykova said the Commission proposed a centralized supply by the Council of Ministers of identical polling screens for all voting sections.

Also on Thursday, the Public Council with CEC sent an open letter to Gurov, saying that the Council of Ministers is shifting the responsibility for the polling screens to the municipalities.