site.btaUPDATED Four Ministries Brief PACE Delegates on June 9 Elections Arrangements

At a meeting here on Saturday, four ministries presented the organization for the June 9 elections to delegates of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), who are in Bulgaria to observe the snap general elections and European Parliament elections. Attending the meeting were Ministers Georgi Gvozdeykov of Transport and Communications, Kalin Stoyanov of the Interior, and Valentin Mundrov of E-Governance as well as the Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Svetlan Stoev, the Ministry of Transport and Communications said in a press release.

Gvozdeykov said that the organisation process has gone smoothly and each of the institutions has completed its activities on time. "The preparations for the elections have been carried out in good coordination with the Central Election Commission, and we have confidence that everything will go smoothly in the upcoming elections tomorrow [Sunday]," the Transport Minister further said. "The work of the international observers is of utmost importance and I believe that your visit will be fruitful," he told the PACE delegates.

Stoyanov explained that so far the Interior Ministry's structures have received 388 alerts about violation of electoral legislation and citizens' political rights. A total of 97 pre-trial proceedings have been initiated. "Through the interactive geographic map, which we introduced for the first time last year, we monitor in real time the received alerts. This enables us to take the necessary decisions to redirect forces and thus avoid situations where vote buying may occur," the Interior Minister specified.

Mundrov said that the Ministry of E-Governance has done everything necessary to ensure transparency in the certification of the voting machines, giving for the first time all registered parties, NGOs and others listed in Article 213 (a) of the Election Code the opportunity to participate in the process. The video recordings from the counting of the votes after the end of election day will be accessible on https://evideo.bg/ 

Stoev said that Bulgarians abroad will vote in 769 polling stations in a total of 60 countries. Voting for MEPs will be possible in all but three of these countries, due to the lack of Bulgarian diplomatic representations there. A total of 245 voting machines have already been sent to the polling stations abroad where over 300 people voted in the previous elections.

The Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the Bulgarian side welcomed a total of thirteen PACE delegates, led by Oleksiy Goncharenko, member of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE and Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.

During their stay in the country, the PACE delegates also held meetings with members of the Central Election Commission, representatives of the media and civil society.