site.btaCC Co-leader Petkov Urges More People to Vote in Order to Minimize Electoral Fraud

"The more people who vote, the less the weight of electoral fraud will be. So, vote like machines even though you use paper," Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov said after voting in the Sunday local elections.  

The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Friday eliminated voting machines over security breach allegations.

Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria contested the decision before the Supreme Administrative Court but it said that cannot consider the matter before Monday, October 30, sparking debates over the issue of machine voting and CEC's last-minute decision to scrap it.

Petkov said that the number of invalid ballots will be clearly accounted for and all Bulgarians will see what it means to go back entirely to paper. "Let's not lose courage and enthusiasm, in reality no matter how many frauds there are, if we vote like in Poland - with 70% turnout, these frauds will have be a small percentage of the final result," Petkov said.

"I live on Shishman Street and in the last three years it has been repaired over and over. I voted for something very practical - not to have another repair on Shishman. On the other hand, I have a friend in [Sofia's residential district of] Lyulin whose street has not been repaired for 20 years. I voted for his street to be repaired as well, because the centre alone cannot be repaired 20 times," he added.