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Voting machine scandal as election campaign draws to a close

E-Government Minister Alexander Yolovskiл
Photo: BGNES

Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel and representatives of the Central Electoral Commission will be heard at an emergency meeting of Parliament's presiding body, (including the Parliament Chair and his deputies, and the floor leaders of the parties). 

The State Agency for National Security has reported that a deputy minister for e-government videotaped the process of generating the codes for the voting machines. 

Desislava Atanasova, leader of the GERB-SDS parliamentary group, said. "I hope that We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria will distance itself from this person," Atanasova added.

Toshko Yordanov, leader of the "There Is Such a People" parliamentary group, said that the voting machines had been compromised in this way and described it as a "coup d'état". 

"The machines have obviously been compromised by this report," Kostadin Kostadinov, leader of Vazrazhdane, told journalists in parliament, calling for the government's resignation. 

Delyan Peevski, co-leader of the MRF parliamentary group, said that the machines should not be used on Sunday so as not to disrupt the local vote, and called for the deputy minister to be sacked.

At a special press conference, E-Government Minister Alexander Yolovski said that the source code of the machines had not been compromised.

"The key used to digitally sign the software on the machines is held by three members of the Central Election Commission, each of whom has a third of the password. Each of them enters their own code, which only they know, and this is one third of the whole password," CEC spokesperson Rositsa Mateva told reporters at a briefing.


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