The Supreme Administrative Court sits Monday on the case against the Central Election Committee's decision to ban machine voting during the October 29 local elections. It will rule whether the decision was legal by Monday evening.
Ten appeals have been filed so far. It is expected that the appeals will be consolidated into one case, as they have the same subject matter. They were filed by participants in the elections and NGOs.
The CEC has taken the liberty to issue a decision before the certification period has expired. In addition, it cited the SANS report in the flawed decision, some of the appellants say.
Lawyer Vasil Pandov said the CEC's decision was invalid and pointed out that the report of the e-Government Ministry, the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology and the Bulgarian Institute of Standardization found no non-compliance of the machines. The Commission could take a decision to ban the machines only if such issues were found, he added.
Democratic Bulgaria Deputy Chair Nadezhda Yoradnova stated the CEC's decision was unmotivated. She noted that the Commission did not indicate on the basis of which authority it issued the decision to abolish the machine voting.
The State Agency National Security report is irrelevant to the CEC decision. It does not certify any circumstance that would lead to the ban of the machines. SANS has no authority to rule in this regard, Yordanova added.
CEC Public Council Chair Tsvetelina Peneva said that CEC's decision violated her rights as a voter - whether to vote by machine or by paper ballot. The decision was made on the basis of documents that are irrelevant to the Electoral Code, she stressed.
CEC Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva argued that the actions of Deputy Electronic Governance Minister Mihail Stoynov on 25 October were not part of the compliance procedure. According to her, it is not confirmed by the certification authorities that he carried out actions under a procedure related to the machines.
CEC believes that Stoynov does not have the authority to sign the certification report, Mateva added.
/DT/
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