site.btaBuilding of Passcode for Voting Machines as Part of Their Verification Begins Friday - Minister Karadimov

Building of the passcode for the voting machines, which is a key stage in their verification, begins on Friday, caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov told a news conference here on Thursday. The Innovation Minister is in charge of coordinating the organizational and technical preparation of the October 27 snap parliamentary elections.

Invited to Friday's event are representatives of all parties and coalitions registered at the Central Election Commission (CEC). Karadimov called on them to attend this process because it guarantees the security of the code itself.

He said firmly that each one of the processes of certifying and determining the parametres of the voting machines before sending them to the polling stations will involve much more specialists, guarantees and publicity. The Ministry of Electronic Governance will provide another 50 IT specialists with the Central Election Commission in this election campaign, who can take active part in the process of checking the machines before sending them to the polling stations. If in the previous elections some 660 machines were checked out of 13,000, now at least 1,600 machines will  hopefully be checked, Karadimov said.

He recalled that the CEC had adopted a decision to destroy all rolls of old paper for machine voting. This decision is a top priority in the Executive's supervision. "We have gathered information from all regional governors. All rolls of old paper have been destroyed at the regional level. We have a problem with part of the municipalities because neither the Municipal Council nor the regional governors can obligate municipal mayors to destroy the rolls or provide information on the matter. We currently have 61 municipalities who have not carried out this task. I will have the specific list within several hours, and we will make everything possible to expedite this process as much as possible in the next several days," Karadimov said.

In his words, the organization for the elections is good, all deadlines are being met, and the state machine is mobilized and completely ready.

In Pleven, Karadimov held a working meeting about the caretaker government's commitments for the material and technical preparation of the October 27 elections. As a coordinator of these tasks' implementation, he talked with the regional governors from the Northwest region and the heads of the territorial units of the Civil Registration and Administrative Services Directorate General at the administrative centres of the corresponding regions.