The Central Election Commission (CEC) has been asked to create a state warehouse for storing voting machines and a commitment from the state for their maintenance. This was stated during the discussion at the last fourth meeting of the Working Group for Amendments to the Electoral Code to the Commission on Constitutional and Legal Issues, reports the Bulgarian National Radio
The summarized draft for amendments to the Electoral Code has been prepared based on proposals from 5 formations – PP, DB, ITN, Vazrazhdane and BSP. All of them were adopted on first reading in early January.
The CEC has sent inquiries to the Council of Ministers 24 times and received answers that no institution has areas that can be used as a warehouse for storing the machines, said CEC Chairwoman Kamelia Neykova. According to her, so far only the Ministry of Defense has offered two properties, but then the proposals were withdrawn. Neykova insisted that maintaining the voting machines be a state policy:
"If we have additional scanning devices, optical devices, electronic devices for ID cards and all sorts of other electronic technologies, it is very important to resolve the issue of their storage, maintenance, and repairs. All machines that have been purchased by the Bulgarian state are already beyond their warranty period and it is time for their maintenance. And on this issue, there is no institution that has answered the CEC how the state can maintain its own machines. It is very important to consider carefully how the audit and verification by authorized bodies will be carried out.
The Deputy Chairperson of the CEC, Rositsa Mateva, requested that the election process be declared an object of national security, and the voting machines - critical infrastructure:
"Just as paper ballots are printed as securities under the control of the Ministry of Finance, so the voting machines, if they continue to be used for voting, or if scanners are purchased, should be designated under some special regime. The CEC believes that the election process should be a process in which the entire state should participate, and yet the decisions of the CEC should be binding on all state and municipal bodies.
During the discussion, it became clear that most parliamentary parties are in favor of preserving both methods of voting - by paper and by machine.
The creation of a "Abroad" district was also discussed, which would elect 4 deputies to the Bulgarian parliament.