site.btaElection Commission "Has Government's Full Support" for Organizing October Vote

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has the full support of the Council of Ministers for the organization of the upcoming elections, CEC Chair Kamelia Neykova said during a briefing on Monday.

The cabinet announced that caretaker Innovation and Growth Minister Rosen Karadimov has been appointed as the government’s coordinator for the organizational and technical preparations for the snap elections on October 27. The announcement followed a working meeting earlier on Monday between six caretaker ministers responsible for the election preparations and CEC. The meeting focused on the cooperation between CEC and the cabinet for the election planning. Neykova said that although this was the first joint meeting, it would certainly not be the last.

"We also discussed issues related to voting abroad and matters within the competence of the Ministry of Justice," Neykova added. She explained that the proposed measures mainly aim to increase trust in machine voting, with other suggestions being primarily of an organizational nature.

"Regarding the special paper for machine voting, I want to emphasize that since the amendment of the Election Code at the end of 2022, the Bulgarian National Bank's Printing Works has been the supplier of this special paper with additional security features," Neykova said.

On June 9, around 140 machines showed defects, leading to the suspension of machine voting. "An analysis of the causes of these defects is underway," Neykova said.

"We will work together to make these elections increasingly public and transparent," caretaker Minister of Electronic Government Valentin Mundrov said during the briefing.

"Low voter turnout is partly due to voters' doubts about the transparency of the election process," Karadimov said to journalists before the meeting.

Neykova was joined at the briefing by Karadimov, and also by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Kondov, Minister of Justice Mariya Pavlova, and CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva.