The Central Election Commission declared Iliana Marinova Yotova elected president of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Kiril Aleksandrov Valchev elected vice president. The presidential ticket received 1,093,852 valid votes, while voter turnout on November 1 at 8:00 p.m. stood at 28.67%.
The certificates of the elected president and vice president will be presented on November 11 at 11:00 a.m. The CEC decision is expected to be promulgated this week.
59 voting machines stopped working
At the commission’s final briefing, machine voting was described as successful. Voters in the country and abroad had the opportunity to vote using 11,902 machines. Of these, 59 stopped working – 31 in the first round and 28 in the second, representing around 0.2% of the total number of devices.
For the first time, machine voting was used in presidential elections in polling stations with more than 300 voters. The machines underwent full maintenance and repairs before both rounds, with the CEC reporting fewer errors in the protocols and record-fast processing of the results in the country and abroad.
There was no video broadcast in around 250 polling stations, as required by law. Around 40,000 polling stations have been designated as top performers and will receive an additional €15.
241 reports of violations
A total of 241 reports were submitted to the CEC regarding the two rounds. Most of them concerned violations of the rules on pre-election campaigning and the publication of polling data before the end of election day.
“Within two consecutive weeks, the CEC managed to organize calm, fast and fair elections,” said commission spokesperson Stoyanka Balova.Nearly 6,590,000 Bulgarian citizens were eligible to vote, with nearly 48,000 people voting for the first time. A total of 12,683 sectional election commissions were established.
The CEC is considering preparing additional methodological guidelines on folding machine voting receipts ahead of the next local elections, so that the secrecy of the vote is not compromised.
Sources: bntnews.bg