Three months before the presidential elections, MPs adopted key changes to the Electoral Code. The main dispute was over the machine vote. It was agreed to vote by machine in all polling stations except those with less than 300 voters, bTV summarized.
The restriction on opening a maximum of 20 polling stations in countries outside the European Union was also lifted.
As always during a debate on the Electoral Code, today the MPs argued over the machine vote. The main disputes were whether it could be manipulated.
„By removing paper, you are taking away the opportunity for a large part of the population to vote by paper - those who have always voted. In 2021, when voting was done only by machine, there were 700,000 fewer voters“, said Tsveta Karayancheva from GERB.
“We must protect the vote from you, not from someone else. Thanks to the fact that “Vazrazhdane“ managed to get a phone to take pictures in the polling station, the whole people saw what your people were doing – falsifying protocols, scribbling on them“, said Georgi Georgiev from “Vazrazhdane“.
“In the last elections, there were 555,000 invalid ballots. This is the reason for introducing machine voting“, pointed out Bozhidar Bozhanov from „Democratic Bulgaria“.
„Machine voting does not limit voters, we limit the possibility of a voter's vote becoming invalid. Do not mock the Bulgarian people and their patience“, said Nikoleta Todorova from „Progressive Bulgaria“.
„Since the introduction of machine voting, the election administration has been faced with a number of challenges“, commented Ayten Sabri from MRF.
„We continue the change“ they wanted an even lower threshold – machines to be in all sections with over 100 voters. Their proposal did not pass.
„Young people of the 21st century want to vote by machine. How can it be done? "It can't be done," said Velislav Velichkov from "We Continue the Change."
With changes proposed by "Progressive Bulgaria," the electoral district "Abroad" is being deleted. It was adopted years ago, but it was never specified how it would elect members of parliament and in practice it never worked.
Tomorrow is the last plenary day for this session.