The first lorries with voting machines for the second round of Bulgaria's local elections on their way to the polling stations
The first lorries loaded with the voting machines for the second round of elections on Sunday departed under police guard on November 3.
Permission from the Central Election Commission (CEC) was given for the lorries to leave at 5 pm sharp from the warehouse where they were stored. Police presence outside the premises has been stepped up. There is also a queue of lorries waiting to be loaded with the devices. The schedule for their transportation has been coordinated with the Ministry of Interior.
The machines were installed with the software over the past two days. This became possible after the report on the certification of the machines was sent to the CEC yesterday evening and it was accepted. Thus, in practice, the last legal obstacle to having machine voting has been eliminated. It was precisely the absence of this report and a file from SANS that caused there to be no machine voting in the first round.
Once they arrive at the municipal electoral commissions, the machines will be sent to the polling stations, which will be delayed precisely because of the situation that has arisen.
Both paper ballots and machine voting will be available in 5900 polling stations. On Sunday, November 5, the Bulgarians will vote to elect 91 mayors of municipalities, 491 of town halls and 31 of regions.
Images by Violata Russenova
