site.btaMedia Review: October 31

Monday's court decision which reinstated machine voting for the second round of Bulgaria's local elections on November 5 and the political map after the first round dominate the media outlets on Tuesday.

MACHINE VOTING CONTROVERSY

The Central Election Commission (CEC) ordered voting with paper ballots only on October 29 following a memo of the State Agency for National Security (SANS) about a possible security breach after the Deputy Minister of Electronic Governance, Mihail Stoynov, was caught making a video of a compliance test of the machines. The court decided that under the Election Code, the Minister of Electronic Governance is responsible for the certification of the voting machines' compliance with the law and he may not delegate that task to a deputy minister. Based on this decision, CEC said that machine voting in the second round requires certification of the voting machines and software. "We are waiting for the Minister of Electronic Governance to act," CEC Chair Kamelia Neykova said.

The Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) interviewed former e-governance minister Bozhidar Bozhanov, MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB), who said the certification before all earlier elections had been done by a deputy minister and now Minister Alexander Yolovski followed the established practice. As things stand, the certification procedure can easily be completed before the November 5 run-off. Commenting on SANS's memo, Bozhanov said the risk mentioned in it is that when something has been recorded, it might create premises for distrust in the machines if it is made public in the future. The main theory is that an operative action was underway as the SANS did not classify its memo on the grounds that CEC has no access to classified information. This clashes with a case in 2022 when based on classified information, the Agency recommended that CEC replace its experts responsible for machine voting but withheld the information itself from CEC. According to Bozhanov, the myth that CC-DB relied on machine voting to win has been shattered.

Also on BNR, former e-governance minister Blagovest Kirilov said it is not machines but people and their competences to implement processes that cause problems. He talked about chaos in the elections, which led to between 10% and 20% invalid votes due to the use of paper ballots only. He blamed the Electronic Governance Ministry's actions or inaction because the certification of the machines was delayed. The Minister is nowhere to be seen even now when he should be leading the process and showing that the proper procedures had been followed. The price paid to Information Services Plc. for the processing of these elections is nearly BGN 8 million, as against BGN 4.5 million in the April 2023 parliamentary elections and BGN 3.3 million in the local elections in 2019. Kirilov asked how those prices were arrived at, adding that a lack of transparency raises doubts about the entire process.

bTV reported there were thousands of invalid ballot papers in the northwestern Vratsa Region. They range between 17% and 27% in the smaller municipalities. Borovan set a record with 938 invalid votes out of 3,491. The worst problems were registered in Roma neighbourhoods where voters forget to cross the number of a party and only vote for a certain municipal councillor candidate as instructed beforehand.

Trud quotes data of the Institute for Public Environment Development, which found that the invalid votes for municipal councilors are 412,701 (15.46% of the votes), compared to 466,077 invalid votes (15.09%) in 2019. In Sofia, the share of invalid votes for municipal councilors is 4.9%. Their share was highest in the northern town of Lukovit at 33.86%. The Institute argued that machine voting would have eliminated the problem of invalid ballots. The last six elections involving machine voting since 2021 have shown that invalid votes were registered only in sections where ballot papers were used.

Interviewed on the Bulgarian National Television (BNT), former justice minister Nadezhda Yordanova MP of Democratic Bulgaria said the CEC yielded to political pressure. The decision of the Supreme Administrative Court is a step in the right direction, it helps to regain confidence in the electoral process. Bulgarians can see that there is a functioning rule of law. In her view, the CEC should not be formed on a quota basis reflecting the distribution of the seats in the National Assembly. The Election Commission should be a truly independent body where professionalism, not obedience to one political party or another, should be the guiding principle. The way to achieve this is clear: either the Election Code should be amended or a new one should be adopted.

COMMENTS ON THE ELECTION RESULTS

Interviewed by 24 Chasa, Prof Ognyan Gerdzhikov, a former Parliament chairman, commented that GERB would have done better by nominating Georgi Georgiev for Sofia mayor. Georgiev was the Municipal Council's chair until now. He is more popular than the TV journalist Anton Hekimyan and is a very competent lawyer, with a strong social sense, who would have made an excellent mayor. In Gerdzhikov's view, the introduction of machine voting was a mistake and other ways should have been sought to minimize paper ballot rigging. As to a possible amendment of the Election Code, he said it was adopted in 2014 and had been amended 25 times so far. Gerdzhikov is in favour of a new Election Code, which should be drafted slowly with the participation of experts on this matter.

Nova TV interviewed political analyst Hristo Panchugov, journalist Asen Genov, sociologist Kolyo Kolev and writer Radoslav Bimbalov. Panchugov said low voter turnout would be the main problem in the second round of voting. If the Prime Minister sees the elimination of machine voting on October 29 as an operative action, the government must take steps to prevent a repeat. Genov commented that the ban on machine voting last Sunday dealt a blow on trust in the electoral process, the security services and the CEC. As to the results in Sofia, given the domination of CC-DB in the 61-member municipal council with 23 seats as against nine for the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the latter's candidate Vanya Grigorova will have her hands tied if she wins the run-off against CC-DB's Vassil Terziev. Kolev said the outcome of the mayoral election in Sofia cannot be predicted. As to GERB's stature after the elections, it seems relatively stable; GERB may lose some ground, which does not mean it is on the way out. Bimbalov views Grigorova as part of a major hybrid attack. He said Sofia is Bulgaria and the fact that GERB is losing ground in the capital after its candidate Anton Hekimyan placed third in the race is an important sign. It remains to be seen how GERB leader Boyko Borissov will trade off his support in the run-off.

Segabg.com offers the opinions of Sega Deputy Chief Editor Petyo Tsekov and political analyst Lyudmil Iliev. They concurred that if Vassil Terziev wins the run-off in Sofia and CC-DB scores well in the provinces, the coalition will be justified to seek early elections, especially if constitutional amendments are adopted to divest the President of the power to appoint caretaker governments. Iliev said that judging from the energized response of the CC-DB leaders on Election Night, their self-confidence got a boost and they may look for ways to emancipate themselves from the quasi-coalition with GERB.

BNT offered three opinions on Sunday's elections. Political analyst Svetoslav Malinov said that when something happens on Friday afternoon right before Election Day, as was the case with the elimination of machine voting in the first round, one is bound to assume that it took some advance preparation. The BSP joined something prepared by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and GERB. Journalist Alexander Simov said the actions of the deputy minister of electronic governance had tied CEC's hands. Unsurprisingly, the court stated that CEC's decision to withdraw the machines from the first round of voting is lawful and justified. Sociologist Evelina Slavkova from Research Center Trend said voting on November 5 would play the role of a referendum on machine voting.

Trud quotes unnamed analysts as saying that the newly elected municipal councils will feature more parties than before but in most places across the country the results of GERB, CC-DB and the MRF reflect the majority in Parliament. For instance, GERB and CC-DB will need three more votes both in Plovdiv and in Burgas to command a majority in the local parliaments. In Varna, the municipal council will be made up of representatives of 12 parties and coalitions, but GERB and CC-DB will form its core.

JUSTICE

Mediapool.bg says that military magistrates have enjoyed good salaries, ample bonuses, an office in downtown Sofia and a minimal workload for years, thanks to a lack of reforms and a generous subsidy. This part of the judicial system costs taxpayers BGN 15 million a year. In return, it handles fewer than one hundred cases of publicly indictable offences a year, the webzine says, citing data provided by the prosecution service and the Supreme Judicial Council. The Armed Forces are about 20,000-strong according to unofficial information. The military magistrates are 16 judges and 47 prosecutors and investigators, supported by hundreds of administrative staff.

FINANCE

Interviewed by Trud, Grigor Sariiski from the Economic Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences commented that the Finance Ministry is likely to achieve a budget deficit below the 3% threshold required for the country's entry into the eurozone by resorting to the usual spending cuts. The Ministry's latest newsletter showed that just 23% of the projected investment spending had been implemented by August, which gives the government a wide leeway for manoeuvre.