The party of Delian Peevski, a politician sanctioned for corruption by the US and the UK, is opposed to machine voting in the parliamentary elections scheduled for 19 April. This became clear on 10 March, when the Ministry of e-Government randomly selected the numbers of ten voting machines to be handed over for inspection.
What was otherwise a routine procedure was used by Peevski’s party, DPS–New Beginning, to challenge machine voting. Stanislav Anastasov, deputy chairman of the DPS–New Beginning parliamentary group, said he believed there were serious problems and suspicions of possible manipulation when machines were used. Anastasov threatened to “alert our partners and all organisations monitoring the elections”.
Caretaker e-Government Minister Georgi Sharkov responded that he had been appointed to ensure the security and reliability of the machines. Earlier, Sharkov said he would do everything in his power to ensure the elections were fair and transparent, and argued that machine voting helped achieve that. “Our responsibility concerns the technical side. Our task is to ensure that the process is technically secure so that the results can be recorded without problems,” Sharkov said during the selection of the machines for inspection. Representatives of the Central Election Commission, the commission’s Public Council, the Bulgarian Institute for Standardisation, the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology and political parties were present.
Bozhidar Bozhanov, co-chairman of the political group Yes, Bulgaria, also responded to Anastasov, accusing DPS–New Beginning of attempting to “blow up the process”.
“Today, the numbers of ten voting machines were selected at random for inspection … This is a formal step, but this time it was used by DPS–New Beginning to blow up the process. Stanislav Anastasov said: ‘Ala-bala with the machines, elections with our Interior Ministry and our machines, but you should know that we will not allow this. We will reveal all the information about how you are doing it just before the elections, and we will alert our partners and all organisations monitoring the elections.’ Apparently they intend to create a new Kostinbrod scandal or another sabotage like at the 2023 local elections. Apparently they want everything on paper. It won’t happen. They should not even think about sabotaging the elections with police tricks,” Bozhanov wrote on Facebook.
More than 90% of Peevski’s votes in Deliorman were cast on paper
It is unclear what “information” Peevski’s party could produce against the machines, but one fact is clear: his voters do not use machines and cast their ballots on paper. At the last parliamentary elections, held on 27 October 2024, more than 90% of the votes for DPS–New Beginning in Shumen region were cast on paper. The party emerged as the leading force in the region thanks to votes from four small municipalities – Venets, Varbitsa, Kaolinovo and Nikola Kozlevo.
In Yasenovo, the largest village in Venets municipality, where the electoral rolls contained 2,432 voters, just three machine ballots were cast. None of them was for DPS–New Beginning, according to data from the Central Election Commission on the results of the last parliamentary elections.
Three polling stations are traditionally set up in Yasenovo. This is how the village voted on 27 October 2024.
At polling station No 13, there were 707 registered voters, of whom 246 voted. Not a single voter used a machine. The main contenders received 110 votes for DPS–New Beginning and 74 for the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, the formation associated with Ahmed Dogan. The remaining votes were scattered among GERB, We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such a People.
At polling station No 15, with 820 registered voters, 288 people voted. Again, not a single voter used a machine. DPS–New Beginning received 162 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 88.
At polling station No 14, 308 of the 905 registered voters cast ballots. DPS–New Beginning received 143 votes, while the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms received 10. This was the only station in the village where machine ballots were cast: there were three in total, none of them for Peevski’s party. One machine vote went to There Is Such a People and the other two to Dogan’s formation.
These were the results in the other settlements in Venets municipality, where a single polling station is set up:
In Borci, with 979 registered voters, 243 people voted and 21 used a machine. The result was close: 85 votes for DPS–New Beginning and 83 for the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms.
In Boyan, 155 of 691 registered voters cast their ballots, 18 of them by machine. DPS–New Beginning received 54 votes, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 42, while We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria received 30.
In Buynovitsa, 99 of 510 registered voters voted, with 21 machine ballots. DPS–New Beginning received 40 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 30.
In Venets, 326 of the 1,185 registered voters cast ballots, only 16 by machine. DPS–New Beginning received 131 votes, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 118, while GERB and We Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria received 20 votes each. Notably, the number of machine voters in the municipal centre was lower than in some of the surrounding villages.
In Gabritsa, 140 of 573 registered voters cast ballots, with not a single machine vote. DPS–New Beginning received 94 votes, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 13, and GERB 19.
In Dennitsa, 64 of 225 registered voters voted, all on paper. DPS–New Beginning received 41 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 12.
In Drentsi, 114 of 484 registered voters cast ballots, again without a single machine vote. DPS–New Beginning received 38 votes, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 24 and GERB 21.
In Izgrev, 263 of 1,243 registered voters voted, with only eight using a machine. DPS–New Beginning received 133 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 62.
In Kapitan Petko, 215 of 815 registered voters voted, with just eight machine ballots. DPS–New Beginning received 76 votes, while the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms received 85.
In Osenovets, 205 of 620 registered voters cast ballots, with only one machine vote, which went to GERB. DPS–New Beginning received 143 votes, the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 15 and GERB 25.
In Strahilitsa, 43 of 97 registered voters voted, all on paper. DPS–New Beginning received 29 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms six.
In Chernoglаvtsi, 218 of 683 registered voters cast ballots. None voted by machine. DPS–New Beginning received 102 votes and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms 55.
There was also one mobile polling station in the municipality, with 127 voters on the roll. Of the 124 who voted, 64 supported DPS–New Beginning and 48 the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms.
15 polling stations for the upcoming election
For the parliamentary elections on 19 April, 15 polling stations will be established in Venets municipality under an order issued by mayor Nehriban Ahmedova.
A single polling station will operate in Borci, Boyan, Buynovitsa, Venets, Gabritsa, Dennitsa, Drentsi, Izgrev, Kapitan Petko, Osenovets, Strahilitsa and Chernoglаvtsi. Yasenovo will again have three polling stations.
The electoral rolls have been published on the municipality’s website.
Consultations with political parties to determine the composition of the polling commissions are scheduled for 13 March at 10am at the mayor’s office in Venets.
