The Central Election Commission (CEC) in several of its reports recommended to the legislator not to appoint the members of Sectional Election Commissions (SEC) so early. This was stated on Nova TV by the deputy chairman and spokesperson of the CEC, Rositsa Mateva, in response to a question about information on the replacement of the members of the CEC in places in the country before the vote on October 27, broadcast by BTA.
Now the members of the SIC are appointed about 25 days before the election day, they have nothing to do so early. Their work is immediately before and on election day, commented Mateva. According to her, it would be better if these members were appointed between 10 and 14 days in advance. “Our proposal is that, once they are appointed, the proposals of the parties that propose them cannot be replaced, except for serious reasons,” said the spokesperson of the CEC. Mateva explained that there is a practice of many of the members of the SIC being replaced after they have already undergone training. She pointed out that the CEC has received complaints about this case. “Many complaints are received, including from groups of members of the CEC who have been replaced without their consent,” said Mateva. When asked how she explains this practice , she suggested as the reason that people from previous elections were initially proposed, but they were not talked to and their consent was not sought. This practice is not good, it is better to stop it with a change in the Electoral Code , said Mateva. She believes that there is enough time for the CEC members appointed immediately before election day to familiarize themselves with the CEC's methodological instructions. Mateva clarified that there are no statistics on the number of replaced members of the SEC.
The Deputy Chairman of the CEC reminded that the election day starts at 7:00 a.m. Mateva pointed out that when voting with a paper ballot, the voter must indicate his vote in the box on the left side with the number of the party or coalition, and after this to mark preference. If only the circle with the preference is marked, this vote will be invalid, Mateva explained. The voter can make a mistake when voting with a paper ballot once and ask for a new one, she also explained.
Machines on election day are not replaced, they are installed for a specific section, Mateva said. If for some reason the machine stops, the technician has an obligation to come within 30 minutes and fix the damage within 30 minutes, specified the CEC spokesperson. Only if the damage cannot be repaired and unforeseen circumstances have occurred, machine voting is terminated and paper voting is switched to, but this is done by decision of the Regional Election Commission, Mateva explained. She also indicated that out of 9,510 machines in the country and abroad, 3,306 were checked by the state experts on a random basis and specified that so many machines had never been checked before.
Up to four days after election day, the results of the vote will be announced and up to seven days – the nominal composition of the parliament, said Rositsa Mateva.
Earlier today, the press center of the Ministry of Innovation and Growth informed about a meeting of the acting Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov, who is the coordinator of the implementation of the activities for the organizational and technical preparation of the elections, with representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Kondov and Acting Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov also took part in the talks.