"The return of machine voting is one of the most important changes, because it affects not only the way of voting, but also the reporting of election results. This seems like one of the most significant changes, because it concerns both the way of voting and the way of reporting, especially the election results“. This was stated to Nova TV by political scientist and lecturer at Sofia University Vanya Nusheva, quoted by novini.bg.
According to her, however, the other proposals should not be ignored - including the possibility of more sections abroad and the creation of a training unit to assist section committees and the Central Election Commission in the preparation and conduct of training.
Among the changes discussed is the introduction of stricter rules for publishing results of sociological surveys on election day, as well as a significant increase in fines for violations. According to Nusheva, the motives for these texts should be clearly explained.
“Some sociological agencies and some media outlets allow themselves to publish results on social networks, while others strictly follow the rules in the Election Code“, Nusheva pointed out.
In her words, the more controversial point is related to the proposal that the rules for election campaigning should also be applied to content distributed through social networks, large online platforms and personal blogs.
“What is not regulated and should be regulated is the financing of election campaigning and political advertising, including on social networks. This is the deficit“, she pointed out. According to her, regulating the expression of opinion itself can lead to problems related to the constitutional right to free expression.
Election expert Prof. Mikhail Konstantinov was also more critical of the proposal to control content on social networks.
“In this thing we see a frank attempt at censorship - crude censorship, violating the Constitution and laws of the country, as well as European rules“, he said.
According to him, such restrictions can hardly be implemented in practice.
“My advice as someone who has been involved in elections for 35 years is - get rid of this nonsense. Enough with the censorship. All attempts to censor this process over the years have failed“, said Konstantinov.
“The result of machine voting will be that 500,000 people will not be able to vote“, he predicted. According to him, part of the problem is related to people who have not used such devices and may experience difficulties.
Vanya Nusheva did not agree with this prediction. According to her, the initial fear of the machines has gradually been overcome, and their main advantage is the facilitation for the sectional election commissions.
“The big bonus of the introduction of the machines is that they facilitate the sectional election commissions at the end of the election day in determining the election results“, she said.