The Central Election Commission has consistently proposed to develop new software for machine voting, but has not received any response from any institution. The decision was announced in a parliamentary hearing on the reliability of machine voting by CEC chairperson Kamelia Neikova. With the voting software acquired in 2021, not a single technical decision can be taken without the participation of its creator, Smartmatic International Holding, she said.
The chairperson of the CEC said there will be no new machines in the local elections on October 29th, and voting will be done with the already purchased nearly 13,000 devices. They are stored in a private warehouse because the Council of Ministers did not secure a state one, she said.
The Ministry of the Interior and the National Security Agency also conduct checks and tests for the security of machine voting, and the Ministry of the Interior and National Security Agency check all people with access to the warehouse where the machines are stored and will work on their preparation and delivery to the election commission, Kamelia Neikova said.