For the last 3 years, the most expensive local government elections were last year. We have spent BGN 188 million from the state budget on them. This was announced on the air of “Hello, Bulgaria” Lilia Nikiforova from the Institute for the Development of the Public Environment.
According to her, the local vote is the most difficult to organize, because in some places voting is done with 3-4 ballots.
„The Parliamentary elections in 2023 cost about BGN 106 million. The biggest part of the expenses for elections are the remuneration of the sectional election commissions. In the parliamentary elections last year, they amounted to about BGN 29 million. Now they will probably reach BGN 35 million. The upcoming elections will probably cost us over BGN 150 million. If we vote 2 in 1, we will save on transport costs for the machines”, explained Nikiforova.
„It will not be easy for the election administration. She has to calculate twice the preferential voting, which we will do if the vote is 2 to 1. If the distance between the two types of elections is only one week, this would complicate the transport and logistics of the voting machines. Let me remind you that we have to vote by machine in stations with more than 300 voters, which means that the machines have to be transported to the stations not only in the country but also abroad. After the European elections are held to be returned to Bulgaria again to be reprogrammed with the new software for national elections, and then to be returned to the sections abroad. In a week, this is almost impossible to happen. It will most likely not be possible to organize machine voting there, believes Tsvetelina Peneva, chairperson of the Public Council of the CEC.
According to her, there is nothing wrong with holding elections because we live in a democratic country.
„It is good to have an awareness campaign, more training in terms of filling in the paper ballots. In the most recent local elections, we have a record number of invalid ballots – over 15 percent. Often only a preferential vote is filled in without filling in a party. This makes the ballot invalid”, claims Peneva.