site.btaPresident Schedules Local Elections on October 27, Criticizes Plans to Abolish Machine Voting

Sofia, July 10 (BTA) - President Rumen Radev issued a decree Wednesday scheduling the next local elections on October 27, Radev's press secretariat said.

The decree is issued pursuant to relevant provisions in the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Election Code.

Commenting machine voting in front of journalists later on Wednesday, Radev said that democracy and the ability of every citizen to freely cast their vote, without it being manipulated, are priceless. "It is not the machines that are to blame, but the administration's low efficiency, regarding both the preparation and pricing of the public tenders, and the organization of using the machines," Radev told a journalist question about the planned repealing of machine voting.

It transpired on Tuesday that the parliamentary group of the ruling GERB party has moved amendments to the Election Code to abolish machine voting in local and parliamentary elections because it is too expensive and might cause the elections to fail. The bill is supported by MPs of the United Patriots power-sharing coalition and Volya.

Radev described as preposterous the act of constantly giving other European states as an example, like the Netherlands, which have given up on machine voting. "When our electoral administration and authorities achieve such a low percentage of invalid ballots and ensure such conditions that the elections are not manipulated, as is the case in these countries, then yes, I would agree to scrap machine voting," the President said.

According to the head of State, this will also be a blow to the Bulgarians abroad, whose expectations to have their voices heard are growing, while in reality abolishing machine voting puts electronic voting further away. What is most concerning, in Radev's words, is the established practice of amending legislation a few months before the elections, which reinforces the belief that there is some type of goal behind this.
LY/ZH, MY