The voting machines that will be used in the polling stations outside Bulgaria in the presidential elections on October 25 will be transported as diplomatic cargo. This was decided by the Central Election Commission.
The organization will be assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the model used in the elections in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, as well as in the vote in April 2026.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide the CEC with a logistical scheme for the delivery of the specialized voting machines to the polling stations abroad, where voting by machine will be possible. In the same way, the devices will be returned to Bulgaria after the end of the elections.
The machines will leave from the storage warehouse in Sofia. There, representatives of the Foreign Ministry will receive them from “Siela Norma“, after which they will be processed as diplomatic cargo and sent to the relevant diplomatic and consular missions.
Each device will be placed in a sealed transport case. When it is handed over to the relevant section election commission, a handover protocol will be signed. The number of the section and the machine, as well as the seal number, will be recorded in it.
The deadline for submitting applications for voting outside the country expired on September 29. By October 3, the CEC must determine the places abroad where polling stations will be established, as well as the number of stations in each of them.