site.btaUPDATED Some 60 Complaints and Alerts Received by CEC, Spokesperson Mateva Says

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has received about 60 complaints and alerts, CEC Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva told a briefing. She added that the CEC has ruled on all of them and has published the register of complaints and alerts received on election day on its website.

The turnout at 20:00 on election day was 38.94%, Mateva said. This compares with a turnout of 34.41% in the June 9 election, 40.63% in the April 2, 2023 election and 39.41% in the October 2, 2022 election.

Mateva reported the work of 125 voting machines was suspended for various reasons. This is 1.30% of the total 9,510 machines, Mateva added. Nine of them are out of the country and the rest are in the country, and for four of the machines, the reason for suspending voting with them is a lack of electrical power, not a breakdown in the machine itself, the CEC Spokesperson explained. 

She stressed that the elections were well organised, which, in her words, international observers have also found. Mateva added that all the tally sheets from the elections had already arrived at CEC, and according to the Election Code, CEC is re-entering the data from the section tally sheets.

All the data that have been announced so far on the CEC website are from the tally sheets when they were entered by the section election commissions. Now all data from the section tally sheets will be re-entered and a comparison will be made. If there are any discrepancies, they will be corrected, Mateva explained. Only then will the final election results be announced.

The CEC does not carry out recounts and cannot order bags to be opened in order to carry out a recount of results in a particular section commission. We cannot correct tally sheets with results. We can only correct so-called errors in the calculation, explained Rositsa Mateva.

Mateva said that the results and the distribution of MP seats will be announced by October 31 and the names of all 240 MPs by November 3 .

Rositsa Mateva also commented on the election result of the Velichie party, which at this point narrowly misses the 4% threshold with a result of 3.999%. She explained how the 4% barrier is calculated and reiterated that the numbers may undergo a change once they are re-entered.

As of now, 97,459 votes are needed to pass the 4% barrier. The Velichie party, based on the records entered, has 97,430 votes. No rounding is done, Mateva explained.

All section tally sheets have already been scanned, she stressed. The CEC has no evidence that anyone was pressured, Mateva added.

Referring to media reports about violations in the election process, Rositsa Mateva said that all alerts received by the Commission are being checked. On the subject of the organisation of video surveillance, according to Information Service, she said that out of 11,626 polling stations with video surveillance, 11,400 were broadcasting.