site.btaUPDATED PM Denkov Calls on Election Commission to Reconsider Machine Voting Ban, Commission Refuses

"The Central Election Commission (CEC) has every reason to reconsider its Friday decision and reinstate machine voting," Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov told a news briefing at the Council of Ministers on Saturday.

His statement was prompted by a CEC decision of October 27 that excluded the use of voting machines in the October 29 local elections.

"Today is a day of reflection during which we should decide whom we will vote for [on Sunday]. Instead, we are discussing yet again how we will vote: on machine or by paper ballot only," Denkov said, pointing out that over 660,000 ballots were pronounced invalid in the previous all-paper local elections in 2019. "We can only guess how many of the incumbent mayors were elected by tampering with the ballots," he added.

"The voting machines should be certified [for compliance with the legal requirements] by 5 p.m. on Saturday. The CEC banned machine voting on Friday, long before that deadline, based only on a report from the State Agency for National Security (SANS)," the PM pointed out. He argued that the SANS report "manipulatively interpreted" several observations and "insinuated that voting by machine can be rigged". "These insinuations are entirely unfounded because, in their current form, the machines function as printers, and voters can be sure that the printed-out ballot correctly tallies their choice when they look at it. The videos and photos are part of a routine procedure on the basis of which the Ministry of Electronic Governance draws up its report certifying that the machines function properly. The argument that the videos and photos can affect machine voting is an insinuation. Within the statutory time limit, the officials in charge and the experts at the Ministry of Electronic Governance published their categorical decision that the machines comply with the requirements of the Election Code and, therefore, can be used in the balloting process," Denkov said.

He added that the SANS report was deliberately not classified so that it could be circulated as quickly as possible without the facts being checked "so as to achieve its manipulative objectives before polling day."

"CEC misled the public that the machines left the warehouses without its permission," Denkov said further on, citing information to the contrary on the Interior Ministry website. "CEC also misled the public that the decision certifying the machines' compliance with the Election Code was only signed by the Deputy Minister of Electronic Governance. That decision was also signed by the acting President of the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology and by the Chairperson of the Governing Board of the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization. That decision was issued on the basis of a report signed by the leaders of the four compliance assessment teams," the Prime Minister explained.

"Everything was done at the last minute, so as not to allow time for reaction to the other responsible institutions like the Supreme Administrative Court, which announced that it will examine the case on Monday at the earliest, i.e. after the first round of voting," Denkov pointed out.

He is certain that Friday's and Saturday's developments will go down in the history books as "an example of an active measure attempting to vitiate the election process." 

Denkov called on CEC to reinstate machine voting, insisting that the Electronic Governance Ministry's compliance report provides a sufficient legal business for such a decision.

He is seriously concerned that the effort to take the voting machines back to the warehouses is being made so as to argue at some point that machine voting is impossible because there are no machines in the voting sections.

"On account of the manipulative report signed by SANS Deputy Chair Denyo Denev, the Council of Ministers will vote him out of office as soon as it receives a proposal to that effect from the SANS Chair," the PM said. 

He called on all people to vote on Sunday, whether on machine or by paper ballot. "This is the way to minimize election abuses and to secure a better future for yourselves and your children," he emphasized.

Commission Sticks to No-Machines Decision

Meeting later on Saturday, CEC decided against reconsidering its decision on the use of paper ballots only in the October 29 local elections. A motion by Commission member Lyubomir Georgiev to reconsider this decision was rejected by the rest of the members. Georgiev argued that the Ministry of Electronic Governance has published a decision by which the Ministry and the two institutes certify that the machine voting devices were compliant with the Election Code requirements.

The decision was signed by Deputy Electronic Governance Minister Mihail Stoynov and reached CEC at 9:26 p.m. on Friday, after the Commission adopted its decision removing the machines from the October 29 voting, CEC member Emil Voinov specified.

CEC member Yordanka Gancheva argued that consideration and revocation of the decision would wreak havoc and confusion in the election process, and the authority managing the elections should not allow this to happen.

CEC member Sevinch Solakova also voted against, saying that she favoured stability of the election management bodies.

CEC Deputy Chair Tsvetozar Tomov insisted that Friday's decision placed CEC in a very grave situation with regard to organizing the forthcoming elections trouble-free. He argued that reconsidering the decision would give the CEC member a last chance to act in a manner saving the Commission's public prestige and authority.