Electoral Commission

The United States, Britain and New Zealand have accused Beijing-backed cyber groups of being behind a series of attacks against lawmakers and key democratic institutions — allegations that prompted angry Chinese denials.

Estonia is set to introduce mobile phone applications for citizens to cast their votes in elections, a move expected to be operational by the European Parliament elections in June 2024.

Boyko Borisov chose to cast his vote with a paper ballot in Bankya today.

"Is there a functioning machine, or are there none left?" Borisov jokingly asked the members of the Electoral Commission upon entering. He then emphasized that, given the recent events in Sofia and Varna, he preferred to vote with a paper ballot.

In the upcoming runoffs of mayoral elections on Sunday, Bulgaria is set to (re)introduce the use of voting machines, following the Central Electoral Commission's (CEC) reception of a certification report signed by the Bulgarian Minister of Electronic Management, Alexander Yolovski, along with the heads of the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization and The Institute of Metrology.

Local elections in Moldova's pro-Russian autonomous region of Gagauzia were won on Sunday by the Ilan Shor Party's candidate, Evghenia Gutul, according to results published by the Electoral Commission in Comrat, the central administrative city in the region.

First results suggest an ethnic Albanian coalition has secured a seat in Serbia's parliament, ending a marathon battle that began with the April Serbian general elections.

Kosovo's Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, ECAP, said on Monday that votes from more than half of the polling stations in the country must be recounted, and declared that votes that were sent from Serbia were invalid.

The election day began at 7.00. There are no serious violations of public order prior to the start of elections, the Ministry of Interior announced.

Citizens may file alerts related to violations that impede the normal running of the election process on the 24/7 telephone line 02/982 22 32 and e-mail izbor@mvr.bg.

Fictive voters registered at fake addresses, voters registered at more than one address and those who are unjustly removed from the electoral roll. These are just some of the many flaws that civic associations say are still contained in the voters list ahead of the historic referendum.

The European Commission on Wednesday blocked financial assistance for Moldova after the country's Supreme Court and the Electoral Commission last week cancelled the mayoral elections in the capital, Chisinau.

"The disbursement of the first tranche under the current Macro-Financial Assistance programme has ... been put on hold," the European Commission told BIRN on Wednesday.