site.btaCentral Election Commission Urges E-Governance Ministry to Finish Voting Machines' Certification ASAP

Central Election Commission (CEC) Chair Kamelia Neykova called here on Tuesday for voting machines to be certified immediately, so that machine-voting can be performed on Sunday. Neykova said that the CEC was prepared to take the next steps once the Ministry of e-Government was done with the certification process.

The Ministry of e-Government said Tuesday that it is opening a new certification procedure and that its teams will be working extra hours to make sure it is completed on time.

All this comes a day after the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) reversed a CEC order that voting machines be eliminated for the local elections over hypothetical security breach identified in a memo by the State Agency for National Security (SANS).

The Court found that the Elections Code mandates the Minister of e-Government with the certification of the voting machines' compliance with the law, and he may not delegate that task to a Deputy Minister, which was the case with the certification of the machines for October 29.

The Court also found that there is enough time before the November 5 runoffs for the Minister to fulfil his obligations.

The moment the compliance certification procedure is completed, there will be an opportunity to have the machines installed and prepared for the second round, Neykova added.

Neykova said, that the CEC is in contact with the Ministry of e-Government, the Bulgarian Institute for Metrology and the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization. She added: "We have already inquired this morning what actions will be taken to comply with the law and the instructions in the court decision. We have demanded and expect urgently the provision of a methodology for certifying compliance".

Asked why a new certification was required and why the CEC in previous elections had accepted documentation signed by a deputy minister, Neykova's response was that "court decisions should not questioned but carried out".

Commenting on SANS's report, Neykova said that it does contain enough evidence to arouse suspicion in the electoral process.

Regarding the number of invalid votes from October 29, Neykova said it was too early for the CEC to issue a summary, as reports from municipal election commissions were still being accepted.