Machine Voting Will Be Available in All Sections - Central Election Commission

Sofia, February 10 (BTA) - The Central Election Commission (CEC) has adopted a decision according to which machine voting will be available in all voting sections in Bulgaria and abroad for the March 26 early parliamentary elections, CEC Spokesman Alexander Andreev said here on Friday. The technical parameters of the hardware and software of machine voting have been specified, said another CEC Spokesman, Tsvetozar Tomov, declining to elaborate on the procedure before it becomes a fact.

"Our principal task is to enable each Bulgarian to express his or her political role in the elections, and machine voting is just one option for this. The back-up option of voting by paper ballot is always there. I don't see a risk of the legitimacy of the voting results being challenged in a country with a 100-year record of voting in this way," Tomov commented, replying to a question.

The CEC has adopted a procedure for the provision and spending of the financial resources for the media packages, and this procedure is being consulted with the Finance Ministry, Andreev said. He was referring to the 40,000 lev State-financed media packages that are provided to parties and coalitions which are not entitled to State subsidy in order to pay for the media coverage of their election campaign.

The media service providers have until Monday to announce their rate schedules and conditions for payment for the paid forms of coverage of entrants' election campaign, Andreev recalled.

Out of 18 parties that have applied for registration for the March 26 elections, 13 have been registered and 3 (Integral Bulgaria, Unity National Movement and New Democracy Bulgarian People's Union) have been refused registration due to non-conforming documents. The registration of one party (Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy) has been stricken off because it failed to collect the minimum required 2,500 voter signatures in support of its application. The application for registration of the Bulgaria without Censorship Party under the name Reload Bulgaria Movement has been rejected.

Nine coalitions have been registered for the elections.

Of the 4,297 applications submitted for voting abroad, the largest number, as usual, came from the UK, Germany and Spain, the CEC said.