The Central Election Commission (CEC) has assigned municipal administrations to provide voting screens for the early parliamentary elections on April 19.
This was announced by BTA.
At its meeting today, the CEC adopted a decision on the terms and conditions for the production, delivery and storage of election papers and materials during the elections. The decision stated that the voting screens would be provided decentralized, by the municipal administrations, and the funds would be provided from the election budget.
The Deputy Chairperson of the CEC, Rositsa Mateva, said during the meeting that the election budget had not yet been sent to the CEC.
Yesterday, Rositsa Mateva stated that the Council of Ministers (CM) had notified the CEC that it would not fulfill its obligation to provide voting screens for the polling stations. Rositsa Mateva reported a letter from the Council of Ministers, in which the acting Prime Minister responded to the CEC that the voting screens with paper ballots are an element of the equipment of the polling stations and therefore their provision is a commitment of the municipal administrations and therefore the Council of Ministers believes that the production of the voting screens should not be centrally assigned by the Council of Ministers.
Voting screens
On February 20, the acting Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov and the CEC leadership held their first meeting dedicated to the upcoming parliamentary elections on April 19, at which one of the topics was precisely the voting screens. To improve the organization, it would be very good if we had a standard format for the screens and they were provided centrally, so that we would have the same screens in all sections, said Andrey Gyurov after the meeting.
A day later, the Chairperson of the CEC Kamelia Neykova explained that there is no “dark room“ or voting booth in the Election Code. Our proposal is to have a centralized delivery from the Council of Ministers for identical screens in all polling stations, Neykova also said.
Yesterday, the Public Council to the CEC sent an open letter to the acting Prime Minister, stating that the Council of Ministers is transferring responsibility for the voting screens to the municipalities.