The government is once again reaching for the Election Code.
"In any case, the machines will print a control receipt, but it will not be the leading element in the counting, but it will be a control receipt that will be able to confirm the votes", explained the former chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Alexander Andreev in the program "The Day ON AIR".
According to him, the inclusion of the results of the machine voting will be carried out in the Regional Election Commissions (RECs), where the data from the flash drive with the data of the voters will be entered.
He noted that in the last elections, trust in machine voting has fallen to its lowest level level.
"Trust in voting with these machines cannot be restored solely on the basis of what technology we consider to be correct. The machines in this condition are out of warranty, they need constant maintenance to ensure that the machines do not fail. The weak point is the printer, which fails to print a control receipt or the ballot", Andreev told Bulgaria ON AIR.
The former CEC chairman emphasized that the machines are subject to audit.
"I do not believe that they can be manipulated and that someone can influence them in any way. For this purpose, the audit was introduced by the relevant institutions. They should ensure that this process cannot be influenced externally," the guest noted.
According to Andreev, the role of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) is not to participate in the certification of the machines and added that he does not see how this could lead to greater security.
"Introducing the MIA into the overall verification and certification of the machines would lead to more questions than answers," concluded the former CEC chairman.