Mandatory machine voting is the biggest novelty at the upcoming snap elections for parliament in Bulgaria scheduled for 11 July. An exception can be made for polling stations with fewer than 300 voters, voting by mobile ballot box, at medical establishments, social institutions, detention centres and prisons, and vessels sailing under a Bulgarian flag.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has confirmed that machine voting can take place at 9,401 polling stations out of almost 12,000 in 31 regional election commissions, 3 more compared to the previous election. For the purpose 1,637 machines are to be added to the 9,600 already available. The exact number of machines which will be provided for the vote abroad is as yet unclear. The time for organization and logistics is quickly running out and this raises concerns regarding their delivery of voting machines to some countries.

Our compatriots abroad insisted on having more polling stations so as to avoid crowds forming on election day, and they got them. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in July Bulgarians will be able to cast their vote in 68 countries, where there are 784 polling stations, or 70% more than during the election on 4 April.

“The most important question now is that Bulgarians’ don’t have any problems voting. What worries us is that it is holiday season and it was very difficult to put our teams together, that is why this vote may be different,” Emilia Mihailova from Nurnberg, Germany said for the BNR.

Will voting abroad cost more than voting inside the country?

A comparison with the 2014 election shows that the price has gone up and that the difference between the cost of voting in the country and abroad has widened. Estimates by the provisional public councils of Bulgarians around the world and the network of Bulgarian election volunteers abroad show that in April this year one voter inside the country cost almost 20 Leva, while one voter abroad cost 15 Leva. The officials posted for the elections abroad are the biggest expense, data indicate.

“At the latest elections, with a view to the pandemic, half the number of Foreign Ministry officials were posted to the section election commissions outside the country – only 160, compared to 388 in 2014. Posting one such official abroad in April cost an average of 4,500 Leva, more than all other costs for setting up polling stations – rent, consumables, sanitizer, disinfectant, salaries for the section commission members.”

Appointing local people has not caused any problems, Dimitar Ivanov says, though there have been challenges:

“There were many places where Bulgarians were organizing elections for the first time. All of a sudden they had to take the whole responsibility as there was not a single person representing the country. They were the country – every single one of them, literally! They were actually making the holding of elections possible, and making them cheaper,” Dimitar Ivanov from Switzerland says.

Dimitar Ivanov, an election volunteer with 15 years of experience, points to two more reasons why the elections are cheaper abroad:

“Outside Bulgaria you do not need round-the-clock security for the election premises or for the papers at the section election commission, you do not need security for the transportation of the election papers, something that in Bulgaria is done with armed security guards for 12,000 polling places, just imagine what that costs! And one other thing – outside Bulgaria the number of people who cast their vote at one polling station is much higher, i.e. the costs are distributed among many more people.”

There are less than 20 days to go until the elections for members of the 46^th National Assembly of Bulgaria. According to CEC spokesperson Rossitsa Mateva “the election campaigning is going ahead in a spirit of tolerance”. Election day will be monitored by 36 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, more than during the election in April.

Interview by Elena Tzaneva, BNR correspondent in Chicago

Editing by Elena Karkalanova