Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgarian court reinstates machine voting

Photo: Ani Petrova

During a five-hour-long session, the Supreme Administrative Court canceled the recent decision of the Central Election Commission that banned machine voting. CEC made the decision a day before the local elections. However, after the court's ruling, citizens will be able to exercise their right to vote by using a machine in the runoffs on Sunday.

Voting with only paper ballots in the first round was the result of MPs spreading information to SANS that the Deputy Minister of Electronic Government illegally filmed and transferred to a flash drive the process of generating the code used to verify the software of the machines.

In their reasons, the supreme judges wrote that the decision of the election commission when it comes to the runoff was illegal. There will be no cassation of the vote in the first round.

"In order to have machine voting in the second round, the certification procedure for the voting machines and software must be completed. We are waiting for the Minister of e-Government", the chair of the CEC, Kamelia Neikova, told the BNR.

"There are no obstacles to the certification procedure of the machines before the second round of the local elections", MP from PP-DB Bozhidar Bozhanov, commented. He added that the temporary parliamentary committee checking all facts and circumstances related to the security of machine voting will hold a meeting today with the chair of SANS, Plamen Tonchev.




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Cool weather with variable clouds

On Thursday, the lowest temperatures will be between 11 and 19°C. In Sofia it will be 13°C. During the day the cloudiness will be variable, decreasing to sunny over many areas. There will be short showers only in the mountains of..

published on 7/9/25 7:10 PM

Fourth no-confidence motion against Rosen Zhelyazkov’s cabinet to be voted on Friday

On Friday, the National Assembly will vote on a no-confidence motion against the cabinet of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov over ''failures in environmental and water policy''. The fourth no-confidence motion against the current government was tabled..

published on 7/9/25 6:09 PM

Albania's National Assembly Speaker Elisa Spiropali visits Bulgaria

The Speaker of the   Parliament of  Albania, Elisa Spiropali, has arrived in Bulgaria for an official visit. The two-day visit is at the invitation of National Assembly Speaker Natalia Kiselova . Elisa Spiropali was welcomed at the airport by the..

published on 7/9/25 5:48 PM