site.btaCentral Election Commission Launches Public Procurement Procedure for Machine Voting

ESD 14:24:31 24-08-2018
SN1422ES.109
109 POLITICS - CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION - MACHINE VOTING

Central Election Commission
Launches Public Procurement Procedure
for Machine Voting


Sofia, August 24 (BTA) - The Central Election Commission (CEC) has launched a public procurement procedure for market research, analysis and consultation for setting an estimated price for the manufacture, purchase and supply of not fewer than 12,500 voting machines, as well as for delivery of the machines to the voting sections in Bulgaria and abroad, warranty and post-warranty service, maintenance, and training personnel to handle and service the devices.

The idea is to research all participants in the market which manufacture and supply machine voting devices.

The estimated cost of the procurement is up to 12,500 leva before VAT, and the deadline for implementation is two months from the signature of the contract.

The procurement announcement comes less than a month after the Sofia Administrative Court ordered the CEC to procure voting machines as an alternative to voting by paper ballots for all voting sections by February 2019, i.e. several months before the May 2019 European elections. The Court granted an action brought by former Reformist Bloc MPs Martin Dimitrov and Peter Slavov.

The CEC said it will appeal the judgment, arguing that it operates under the Election Code whereas the case is under the Administrative Procedure Code and that it cannot implement machine voting without launching a public procurement procedure for the machines.

Under a provision in the effective Election Code, adopted in 2014, this option should have been available back for the March 26, 2017 parliamentary elections, after experimental machine voting at 500 sections at the end-2016 presidential elections exhausted opportunities for a postponement of its full-scale implementation.

Before last year's parliamentary elections the Supreme Administrative Court ruled that machine voting should be available at all sections. A public procurement procedure for renting 12,500 voting machines at an estimated cost of 15 million leva before VAT was announced. Because of the little time allowed, just a single bidder stepped forward, and it withdrew later on, saying that it was unable to perform the procurement. LN/LG