"The forced introduction of machine voting, without explanation, without the representatives of the people having tried to reach a consensus and without having cleared the people's distrust of voting machines, is not a good solution". This was stated to News.bg by Rumyana Decheva, an expert in electoral legislation and former chairwoman and deputy chairwoman of the Public Council at the Central Election Commission (CEC).
She explained that there are probably reasons for the PP-DB to demand 100% machine voting in the early parliamentary elections in the spring.
"The good practice is not to have another type of voting in the same place and at the same time. If there is a different way of voting for people who would prefer to express their vote in a different way, then voting in a section should be by machine, and the rest of the people should vote by paper, but at a different time and place. We are the only country where people vote both with paper and with a machine on the same day and in the same place," commented Decheva.
She gave an example that The Electoral Code is one of the most changed laws in our country - as many as 27 changes in the last 11 years, which, in her words, is not the best practice.
According to Decheva, whether trust in the electoral process will return with changes to the Electoral Code - depends on how the representatives of the people will do it. "I don't see a process that unites, that tries to set equal conditions for all of us, the voters,", noted the expert on electoral legislation.
Rumyana Decheva pointed out that what can be done as changes to the Electoral Code is to return the functionality of voting machines, and not for them to be just "printers". All that needs to be done is to remove some of the misconceptions that have turned the machines we have paid for into the country in which we cast our votes. Other things can be done that do not require changes to the Electoral Code, such as in the polling stations, Decheva specified.
The other thing that could be done for the early parliamentary elections, without requiring any changes, is to prevent the distortion of the vote through bought and controlled votes. These are small things that, if there is a will and a preliminary declaration of determination by the parties represented in parliament, can increase trust in the electoral process, believes Rumyana Decheva.
She added that another thing that could be done is to change the training of the Section Election Commissions (SEC) and the District Election Commissions (DEC). A huge part of the members of the SEC perform their work without being trained and listen to someone who is trained. They follow someone, and do not fulfill their mandate as it is by law, Rumyana Decheva pointed out.
Why are biometric ID cards not used in elections?
Rumyana Decheva said that biometric ID cards are not used because this largely concerns the controlled vote. Biometric recognition would solve many problems, she believes. And she gave an example that many countries are switching to biometric recognition with the argument of knowing which person is voting.
According to her, within 2-3 months, during the next parliamentary elections, there will be no possibility of introducing biometric ID cards in the fight against bought and controlled votes. "What can be done is for the conversation and discussions about changes to begin and when the decision is made on what to do in the Electoral Code, it should become law so as not to compromise the quality of the process. "Biometric recognition will certainly improve both trust and quality in elections," said Rumyana Decheva.