Voting

The Central Election Commission (CEC) amended late on Friday night its decision on electronic voting machines by writing that during the elections on March 26 there will be electronic voting in all voting sections.

The Public Council to Bulgaria's electoral body, the Central Electoral Commission, or CIK, on Thursday said the future of electronic voting in Bulgaria must be determined after thorough analyses and public debate.

BGN 30 M will not be sufficient for the voting machines but the Central Election Commission has the assurance of the interim Finance Minister that the funds needed will be secured, stated the spokesperson of CEC Kameliya Neykova, reported BGNES.

Bulgarian authorities will make sure voting machines are available in all polling stations for the early election on March 26, interim Deputy Prime Minister Stefan Yanev has said.

The Council of Ministers will respect the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court on making sure that electronic voting is enabled at every polling station for the snap parliamentary elections on March 26, announced the press service of the Council of Ministers.

The Supreme Administrative Court has ruled Bulgarian authorities have to make sure electronic voting is enabled in every polling station in the country at the snap election scheduled for the end of March.

A court will sit on Friday to determine whether the referendum held in November on the voting system is binding and whether machine voting should be mandatory for all polling stations.

Voters overwhelmingly backed in November the introduction of a majority electoral system, a drastic cut in party subsidies, and mandatory voting in both elections and referenda.

European deputies did not manage to elect a new President of the European Parliament at the second round of voting as well.

During the second round of voting on the replacement of Martin Schulz in Strasbourg, the candidates of the left-wing and the right-wing ranked first again.

Albanian opposition parties have laid out their five key conditions for political participation after signing a memorandum concerning the upcoming general election due on 18 June.

Turkey's parliament has approved the first two items of an 18-article constitutional amendment package to shift the current parliamentary system to an executive presidency by respective votes of 343 and 347 amid serious opposition criticism over government MPs' violations of the requirement to vote secretly.