site.bta12 Parties, 10 Coalitions Have Submitted Documents to Register for Upcoming Elections, Says Central Election Commission Deputy Chair

So far, 12 parties and 10 coalitions have submitted registration documents, said Rositsa Mateva, spokesperson and deputy chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC), speaking on Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Wednesday. A total of eight parties and five coalitions have so far been registered for the upcoming elections.

Later on Wednesday, the CEC is expected to adopt decisions regarding those applications that are still subject to verification, she added.

According to Mateva, coordination between the CEC and the executive branch is proceeding smoothly.

"It is not a problem for the CEC. The responsibility lies with the organization that is a member of the Public Council and nominated him, which must decide whether he should continue or not," Mateva said when asked whether Stoil Tsitselkov's participation in the CEC Public Council posed a problem. On February 20, Tzitzelkov announced that he would resign as caretaker deputy prime minister and minister responsible for fair elections.

All 48 members of section election commissions who failed to switch on their cameras during the previous elections have been sanctioned, Mateva also said.

"We hope that this time there will be more observers. Since the introduction of video surveillance, fewer people have been monitoring the process on the ground. If they are present at the polling stations, they can ensure that the video surveillance is carried out properly," she added.

Mateva also said that the frequent replacement of members of section election commissions creates difficulties. She explained that incentives had previously been provided for training, but it turned out that many commission members who had completed training were subsequently replaced. Explicit instructions will therefore be issued to municipal and regional election commissions that replacements of sectional election commission members must strictly comply with the Election Code - either the member must submit a request for withdrawal or objective circumstances must make their participation impossible.

According to Mateva, the most serious problems have been identified in five regions of the country where thousands of section election commission members were replaced just days before the vote.

"We will explicitly instruct the regional election commissions to comply with the decision and not make replacements. We will also call on the parliamentary parties and coalitions that nominate section election commission members to ensure in advance that those individuals have agreed to be appointed. This will allow for proper training and we hope that this time the members will approach their responsibilities more responsibly," Mateva said.

Commenting on recent amendments to the Election Code, the CEC spokesperson said they do not make the process easier, because the CEC must determine the number of polling stations only after consular missions, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, propose where they should be located.

"The Foreign Ministry and the consular missions know best the distribution of Bulgarian communities abroad and should make the proposals," she said.

On February 25, Parliament rejected the President's veto and readopted the disputed amendments to the Election Code at second reading. President Iliana Iotova's veto was mainly motivated by provisions limiting the number of voting sections outside diplomatic and consular missions in countries outside the European Union to 20.

Mateva also said that the option to submit electronic applications for voting abroad will be launched on the CEC website on March 5 or, at the latest, on Friday, March 6. The deadline for submitting applications is March 24.

"These amendments to the Election Code do not affect the work of the CEC," Mateva added.

"There will be machine voting. We have a sufficient number of machines. Around 500 machines require replacement parts," the CEC spokesperson said.