The Central Election Commission has delayed the invitation to tender for voting machines, said caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerzdzhikov in an interview for bTV. The machines can be rented from Holland he said and added:

“Some countries that had machine voting before have now given up the practice, because it turned out to be less reliable than was once thought. Holland, for example, took this step back and we will now possibly be relying on Holland for the use of the machines they have.”

The prime minister cautioned that in the event of no one bidding in the tender for this public contract and the elections taking place using solely paper ballots, there would be arguments for demanding an annulment of the elections.

“Bulgaria must nominate a European commissioner relatively quickly, and the candidate must be an expert well known in Brussels with no party affiliations,” Ognyan Gerdzhikov said further. He stated he would advise President Rumen Radev not to delay the matter. Radev, who appointed the caretaker cabinet with PM Ognyan Gerdzhikov, has stated on several occasions that the new commissioner should be nominated by a regular, politically committed government.