The explanatory campaign aimed at how to vote in 2 in 1 elections is of key importance. Tsvetelina Peneva from the "Democracy and Legality" Association told the BNR.
"What we most want to emphasize is to increase the transparency of the electoral process in several ways. First, to explain in understandable language to the voters what is happening in terms of software authentication and certification procedures – it was a sore subject in last year's local elections, an issue that made it virtually impossible to vote by machine in the first round. The other emphasis in our letter for an explanatory campaign was mostly in terms of educating voters to vote with paper ballots, especially in small towns and villages, explained the until recently head of the Public Council of the CEC.
Peneva recalled the large percentage of invalid ballots - over 15% - in the last local elections. According to her, this is very embarrassing for a country in the EU.
"The reason was because of the insufficient explanation to the voters that they had to mark not only a preference but also a party choice. There were a large number of ballots where people had only preferentially voted. By not reporting a party, their vote becomes invalid. This means an enhanced targeted communication campaign," she pointed out as a result of their analysis. The recommendations are for posters and videos to help people vote.
According to her, the organization of work that will be created in the sectional commissions is also of key importance for the correct counting of voters' votes.
According to her, the flash memory results should not be emphasized because they are not a valid result and explained the reasons.
Peneva also emphasized the training of the members of the sectional commissions. "They must be well trained, they must be responsible to be able to cope with the task and not have a large percentage in the protocols,", she emphasized.