Minister of Transport and Communications Georgi Gvozdeykov, Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov, Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev met today with representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The delegation is visiting Bulgaria to observe the forthcoming elections to the National Assembly and the European Parliament.
Minister Georgi Gvozdeykov stressed that the process of organisation had gone smoothly and each of the institutions had completed its activities on time. "The preparations for the elections have been carried out in good coordination with the Central Election Commission and we have confidence that everything will go smoothly in the upcoming elections tomorrow," the Transport Minister further said. "The work of the international observers is of utmost importance and I believe that your visit will be fruitful", Georgi Gvozdeikov added.
Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov explained that so far the Interior Ministry has received 388 signals for violation of electoral legislation and political rights of citizens. A total of 97 pre-trial proceedings were initiated. "Through the interactive geographic map, which we introduced for the first time last year, we monitor the incoming signals in real time. This allows us to take the necessary decisions to redirect forces and thus avoid situations where there could be vote-buying", Minister Stoyanov further said.
"We have done everything necessary to ensure transparency in the authentication of voting machines by providing for the first time the opportunity to registered parties, NGOs and others under Article 213a, para. 3 of the Electoral Code to participate in the process," said e-Government Minister Valentin Mundrov. He also informed that all the devices for the real-time video surveillance and video recording after the announcement of the end of polling day at the polling stations during the counting of votes have been delivered as intended. The broadcast and recordings will be available at https://evideo.bg/
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev said that Bulgarians abroad will vote in 769 polling stations in a total of 60 countries. "In 57 countries both types of elections will be held, and only in 3 countries, where Bulgaria does not have diplomatic representations, will not be voting for members of the European Parliament", he added. He said 245 machines had already been sent abroad to polling stations where more than 300 people had voted in the previous elections.
