site.btaVice President Sees Attempts to Undermine Credibility of Machine Voting

Vice President Iliana Iotova said here on Wednesday that there is a clear tendency, especially in recent days, to compromise machine voting, or at least to convince people to opt out of machine voting. She was among the participants of President Rumen Radev's meeting with representatives of institutions responsible for the preparation of the upcoming snap parliamentary elections on October 27 and ensuring their fairness.

Caretaker Electonic Governance Minister Valentin Mundrov said that the goal of the administration is to restore confidence in machine voting. "We have taken actions to restore citizens' trust. Every single citizen can observe how the authentication is conducted, and be convinced that machine voting is better," commented Mundrov.

Iotova said that ministers from the caretaker Cabinet "have a different opinion on the matter, but we live in a free country, everyone has the right to an opinion".
Regarding Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov's claims that part of the vote-buying goes through fast loans and the obligations of shops, the Vice President asked him who covers people's debts. "You must have information about who pays for these obligations. Do you have information in favour of which parties these votes were bought?" Iotova asked.

Ilkov replied that he has no right to publish information about which parties are buying votes. "We cannot define a category of persons who are behind each instance. Some have a criminal past, others do not," the Minister also said.

The security of the warehouse, where the voting machines are stored, is carried out by the Interior Ministry 24 hours a day, Ilkov pointed out. Only persons with express permission from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are allowed in. There is no possibility of a person accidentally getting into the warehouse, explained the Minister.

CEC Chair Kamelia Neykova added  that the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security do background checks before allowing people to enter the warehouse. She also said that the Interior Ministry observes the materials that the CEC allows to be imported into the warehouse.

Neykova stressed that fully functioning and working machines will be used for the election day.