The information from State Agency National Security’s (SANS) report contains data that suggest distrust in the electoral process and compromising the machine voting, said Central Election Commission (CEC) Chair Kameliya Neykova on Bulgarian National Television’s morning show on Saturday. “Our right to vote will be ensured by paper ballots. I do not think there is any threat to the fairness of the elections,” she added.
“On the evening of October 26 I received a report from SANS with information about illegal actions of a e-Government deputy minister related to the security of the machine voting,” explained Neykova. "My first action was to contact all the others to whom the report was sent, the next day the talks continued and at noon we were invited to a conversation with the National Assembly Chair Rossen Zhelyazkov. All the leadership of the CEC, representatives of the parliamentary parties and coalitions, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of e-Government were there. The SANS report was presented, the e-Government Minister was heard. He said that the compliance certification procedure had not been completed as required by the Electoral Code and that he would not sign such a decision. We expected that what he presented at this meeting would be sent to the CEC. We were awaiting for the letter from the e-Government Ministry by Friday evening. When it arrived, it was clear from its contents that no decision had been issued at the time and signed by the heads of the e-Government Ministry, the Bulgarian Institute of Standardization and the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology," the CEC Chair stated.
"Taking into account the information contained in the SANS report, the information we received at the meeting with the National Assembly Chair, and the fact that no decision had been sent to certify compliance, the CEC decided to eliminate machine voting in accordance to the Electoral Code. Trust in the electoral process is extremely important,” Neykova pointed out.
She noted that the SANS report contains more information than just the fact that the hash code was captured.
On the subject, CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva told Nova TV that the information about the capture of the hash code is misleading the whole society. “This is the public code that is provided to all commissions, we are not talking about these actions and this code, but about actions carried out on October25, outside any procedures and rules,” Mateva stressed. She clarified that she is a supporter of machine voting, but after the information that was received from SANS, she believes that the decision to vote in the local elections only with paper ballots is the only right one.
Neykova noted that there is no way a machine could show up at a polling place. The CEC has instructed that the voting machines should not leave the warehouse and should not be transported to the polling stations, she said.
She urged voters to take care when marking their vote on the paper ballot paper so that there are no invalid ballot papers.
/MR/
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