BNT: We constantly hear the word fair elections and we will continue to hear it. What measures is the CEC taking to guarantee the transparency, the fairness of the vote, in order to reject all claims that there may be manipulations with the machines or with the paper ballots?
Kamelia Neykova – Chairperson of the CEC: Integrity, as well as honesty, is the basis of any democratic process. This means that all of us voters can go to the polling stations to exercise our right to vote according to our personal will, according to our own decision without anyone else's interference. In this sense, the CEC, in all its actions and decisions, strives for this very thing – to guarantee Bulgarian voters that they will be able to peacefully and freely exercise their right to vote.
BNT: You had to appoint the district election commissions, as the parties again failed to reach an agreement and you gave a recommendation to the mayors not to rush the consultations regarding the sectional election commissions. Is this because of the last-minute replacements? Do you think you can handle it this way?
We hope that this is a measure that will significantly reduce the replacements of members of sectional election commissions. With regard to the district election commissions, in only two electoral districts was there agreement in the consultations with the regional governors on their composition.
All the others were appointed at the discretion of the CEC, but so that the leadership of the commissions would include representatives of the parliamentaryly represented parties and coalitions. Regarding the sectional election commissions, we recommended that the consultations be held no earlier than March 12, and they have already been completed as of today. And on Thursday, we sent instructions to the regional election commissions, and we also informed all parliamentaryly represented parties.
We instructed the regional commissions to give sufficient time to the parliamentaryly represented parties regarding the nominal composition of the members of the sectional election commissions, so that as close as possible to the deadline, which is March 24, when they must be appointed, according to the terms of the Electoral Code. There is time for the nominal composition to be maximally ensured as a stable composition. There is no way to guarantee that no one will refuse to show up on election day.
But these unprincipled replacements that we witnessed, despite the fact that the provision in the Election Code that does not allow this, not from yesterday, not from the latest changes, but it was always violated, even when the Central Election Commission gave instructions to the district election commissions. I will give just one example for the elections on October 27, 2024. In the last week, before election day, over 10,000 members of sectional election commissions were replaced. So, now we have allowed the district election commissions to replace members of sectional election commissions only if any of the prerequisites specified in the law are met.
And when it is alleged that someone has resigned, this claim must also be proposed in a written application by the person who was appointed as a member of a sectional commission. Our goal is to have members of commissions who have undergone training, who are familiar with the instructions and decisions, appear on election day, so that no mistakes are made.
This week, you had a meeting with representatives of both the prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Interior and the State Security Agency. These meetings are, of course, good from the point of view of identifying preliminary measures. The question here is, however, when there are violations - we catch them, we show them, the public signals, are there any penalties and are they adequate?
With regard to these violations, which constitute a crime, you should perhaps seek an answer from the prosecutor's office and the investigative bodies. In cases where administrative violations are committed, according to the provisions of the Election Code, the Central Election Commission draws up acts establishing administrative violations. For example, we drew up such acts for all members of section election commissions, for the chairmen of the commissions. I think there were 43 who, in the last parliamentary elections, without any technical reason or any reason to justify such behavior, did not turn on the video surveillance device and there was none.
Have you taken measures for the video surveillance devices now?
Measures regarding video surveillance will be taken. At the moment, we expect to see the Ministry of Electronic Governance, to which the Election Code has assigned the technical provision of video surveillance. What choice of contractor will it make, who will provide the video surveillance technically and together with the Minister of Electronic Governance we will ensure that the technical serviceability is ensured. The instructions to the sectional commissions will be very clear.
In this sense, I would like to say that we are considering with colleagues and perhaps in the next working week they will become facts, the methodological instructions of the Central Election Commission. We are considering that they should be more practical in nature. Simpler. In general, if I may give such an example - do first, do second, do third and note that you did it, so that there are no mistakes, they do not need to read many pages with legal grounds, and there must be clarity in the instructions that are given to them, so that they follow them absolutely precisely.
The focus of public attention is also on the machines. What condition are the machines in? Do they really need repairs, replacement of parts? And is it a case that they are already out of warranty?
The warranty on the machines is not a case at all, because these are computers - machines, devices, which on all machines - 12,837, the warranty period has expired, because they were purchased in 2021. The warranty period is three years, which means that if there were any damages during this period, their removal or the provision of spare parts should have been at the expense of the supplier. Once this warranty period expires, it is at the expense of the state.
Yes, like any machine that works, spare parts need to be replaced, but in no case are these the kind of parts that someone, God forbid, would think that the machines would be manipulated. For example, an extension cord, a cable, a battery, these pages that ensure the secrecy of the vote, there are cases when the suitcases in which the machines are transported are broken, a wheel or a handle, but all of these are spare parts, in relation to which the Central Election Commission has taken action to secure them, but they are very few in number.
In no case should voters and participants worry that these machines will not be used at all in these elections, because all the machines that will be used for the country are 9354. These are the sections with machine voting. For outside the country, there may be no more than 150, but the deadline for submitting applications for voting outside the country must expire in order for the exact number of sections with machine voting to be clear. All machines that will be used in the elections on April 19 will be in good technical condition.
No machines will be used that have even the slightest reason to have a technical malfunction. All machines are subject to preventive maintenance and diagnostics before their installation and preparation. It may turn out that there are more that have a technical malfunction. But the expired warranty period is not at all an issue that should bother anyone. I say this because we are asked this question very often, just as we throw away the TV at home when its warranty period has expired. In the same way, with machines, the expired warranty period should not bother anyone. The machines work.
By tradition, the election rules are changed literally at 12 to 5. The sections in countries outside the European Union were limited to 20. How is the submission of applications for voting abroad going? If we can say that we expect problems, queues, tension somewhere, then it is Turkey, Great Britain and the United States - what measures are you taking there?
These three countries are the countries outside the European Union, which in the previous parliamentary elections had more than 20 polling stations. Usually, more applications are submitted there. I did a check - as of 3 p.m. today, about 20,800 confirmed applications for voting outside the country had been submitted. This is not a small number. In the elections in October 2024, all applications submitted were a little more than 30,000. For me, it was an interesting fact that in Great Britain, perhaps now to date, the applications are over 4,000, i.e. almost twice as many, if not a little more than what was submitted in October 2024.
The applications submitted in the United States are also a lot more. In Turkey, they are usually always the largest number, and we still have 9 days until the deadline. I hope, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and mostly it depends on the proposals of the diplomatic and consular missions for the location of these 20 sections, but in the embassies, where there is a possibility, more than one polling station will be opened. As far as we have specified these issues in conversations with colleagues from the Foreign Ministry, there is an attitude, for example in London, that there will be 7 sections in the embassy, i.e. they will be outside these 20.
Everything will be done so that voters can exercise their right to vote peacefully. There may be a wait. Some voters may have to travel to a neighboring settlement, where there will be a polling station. Because there is no way, when the polling stations decrease from 60 to 20, that will not happen. But in the end, that is what the legislator decided.
Will there be no polling stations in the Middle East?
Most likely not. Because there are applications submitted for these countries, there are few, but there are. When the electronic application is submitted, the voter is presented with a text stating that due to inexpediency and uncertainty, it is likely that a polling station will not be opened there. So, of course, these voters will be notified when the final decision is made by the Central Election Commission based on the proposals that will come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This will happen sometime around March 28.
This Friday marks one year since the Constitutional Court's decision, which we all define as the unprecedented and boldest decision of the Constitutional Court last year. Of course, many violations were found there. They were defined as missing ballots, they were even entered as zeros, later you said that they were found. What measures were taken in this direction so that there would be no missing ballots?
Yes, indeed, there are no missing ballots. There were ballots that were not placed in the designated places, as was written in the decisions of the Central Election Commission and in the instructions. Indeed, from some electoral districts, months later, after the Constitutional Court's decision, we received information that they were found in the premises of the municipality, but in the same room where the election papers and materials are stored, but placed in a different place.
In the end, unfortunately, the Constitutional Court accepted as zero the votes for the parties and coalitions in those sections where there were no ballots in the bags. In view of this, this time, so that the section committees do not wonder, they will place the election papers in a white bag, and everything else in black. At least this difference in colors, I hope, will help them not to get confused and there will be no similar cases.