Bulgarian Cabinet allocates 9M leva for machine voting costs
Bulgaria’s Government said on May 8 that it allocated nine million leva to the Central Electoral Commission to cover costs related to the rental of 3000 voting machines for the European Parliament elections on May 26.
The funding is in addition to the electoral body’s allocation to hold the elections and was made necessary by the recent amendments to the Electoral Code, which required CEC to use voting machines in 3000 electoral precincts in the European Parliament elections.
Last month, CEC picked Ciela Norma to provide the voting machines for the election. Its timetable envisions the machines being delivered by May 10, with software installation due to be completed by May 15, followed by 10 days for certification and audits.
A court challenge by one of the two losing bidders in the tender was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court on April 30.
(Ciela Norma’s sample voting machine. Screengrab from Bulgarian National Television.)
