site.btaCabinet Adopts Decision on Preparation and Conduct of June 9 Elections

Meeting on Thursday, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision on the preparation and conduct of the early parliamentary elections and the European Parliament elections on June 9, 2024, the Government Information Service said.

The Minister of Transport and Communications was assigned to coordinate the administrative and logistical preparation of the elections, including the coordination with the Central Election Commission of the terms and procedure for the manufacture, delivery and safekeeping of the election stationery and materials, including for the safekeeping of the machine-voting technical devices. 

The Minister of Finance will shortly lay before the Council of Ministers a draft rate schedule according to which by parties, coalitions and nomination committees will pay for campaign broadcasts of the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian National Radio and their regional centres.

The Minister of Regional Development and Public Works will coordinate the preparation and publication of the electoral rolls. The Minister of Foreign Affairs will organize the preparation and conduct of the elections abroad. The Minister of Justice will organize the preparation and conduct of the elections at the places of deprivation of liberty.

The Minister of Electronic Governance will make the technical arrangements for the video monitoring and video taping, including by concluding the requisite contracts.

By another decision, the Government approved the cost estimate for the preparation and holding of the early parliamentary elections and the European Parliament elections on June 9, 2024 amounting BGN 98,179,400. The funds will be spent on the compilation and printing of electoral rolls, purchase and manufacture of the requisite electoral stationery and materials, including voting envelopes, tally sheets, certificates, etc., logistic support of the regional and municipal administrations and the Council of Ministers administration, remunerations of the members of municipal and section election commissions, arrangements for voting abroad, arrangements for the Interior Ministry to maintain public order and security, carrying out an awareness campaign on citizens' rights and obligations and the manner of voting, training the members of section election commissions, arrangements for video monitoring and video taping of the election process, organizing polling sites at public schools, etc.

The Government is ready to provide the requisite funding when the Central Election Commission concludes contracts for logistics and technical maintenance of specialized electronic machine voting devices, voting by paper ballot, computer processing of the voting data, and the publication of the election results in a bulletin. 

The financial resources needed to finance the spending approved by the cost estimate will be defrayed by the expenditures planned under the 2024 central government budget.