Voting machine

More than 700 polling stations will be equipped with more than one voting machine for the early general elections on July 11, Rositsa Mateva, Deputy Chairperson and Spokesperson for the Central Election Commission, said in an interview for bTV.

There will be no machine voting abroad, Stoil Tsitselkov, deputy chairman of the Public Council at the Central Election Commission - CEC, has told BNR's Horizont program.

The snap parliamentary elections on July 11 will cost BGN15.75 million, Chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Kamelia Neikova told BNT today. The draft estimate is made taking into account the supply of another 1,500 voting machines.

In 700 polling sections in the country will probably be placed two voting machines and not only one. This is the assessment of the Central Election Commission based on the results of the first test voting with machines, which took place today.

About 1,000 additional voting machines will have to be secured for the early parliamentary elections on July 11, the Central Election Commission (CEC) told a news briefing on Thursday. According to CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva, the voting machines secured for the local elections and by-elections can be used on July 11 or, in case of ballotage, there is an option for software updates.

The new chairman of the Central Election Commission, Kamelia Neykova, hopes the CEC will not be held hostage between battles in parliament.

The Council of Ministers on February 12 voted to approve the introduction of voting machine in every polling station at the next parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov also expressed support for the voting machines.

The deputies are expected to vote on the proposed changes to the Electoral Code for dropping the machine voting in local and parliamentary elections. Last week, one vote didn't reach for the governors to obtain a quorum.

Bulgaria's Ombudsman Maya Manolova said that a discussion will be held in her office on June 28 about the machine voting at the forthcoming local government elections, reports BNT. 

All sections for voting have been opened throughout the country for election day. Citizens can go and exercise their vote, said Tanya Tzenova of the CEC.

Of the 3000 sections in only 2, there were problems with machine vote, but they will be fixed, she added.

We expect the first turnout data to be around 11 am, Tzenova said.