“Siela Norma”: The statement of the CEC that paper for voting with machines cannot be produced in Bulgaria is false – Around the world and in our country

The statement of the CEC that paper for voting with machines cannot be produced in Bulgaria is false. This was announced by “Siela Norma” – the company responsible for the delivery and maintenance of the machines with which we vote, in connection with the speech of the CEC chairman Kamelia Neikova in the program “Panorama”.

See the full Siella Norma position here.

In connection with the false and misleading statements of the CEC chairman, Ms. Kamelia Neikova, presented in the “Panorama” program from November 3, “Siela Norma” would like to make the following clarifications:

1. For all machine voting elections of the last 10 years, up to and including the October 2022 general election, Siela has supplied the paper rolls for the voting machines. They fully met the specification of the machine manufacturer, and the last deliveries were entirely produced in Bulgarian printing houses. Therefore, Mrs. Neikova’s statement that such paper cannot be produced in Bulgaria is untrue and does not justify the purchase of paper, unsuitable and dangerous according to the manufacturer of the machines.

2. The price at which Ciela Norma delivered paper rolls to the CEC for the elections in October 2022 is BGN 3.96 per piece. A month ago, Mrs. Neikova concluded a contract, which has not yet been published, for a price of BGN 13.90, which is more than 3.5 times the price, without any particular changes in the prices of production materials during this period.

3. In the repeated requests from Ciela Norma to correct the specifications and to supply paper with parameters according to the manufacturer’s requirements, we have always received an answer from Ms. Neikova that this is not the work of Ciela Norma and is outside of our agreements public procurement contracts.

4. On January 17, the manufacturer of the Smartmatic voting machines notified Mrs. Neikova in writing about the technical parameters and requirements for the paper rolls. Despite this letter, paper has been purchased for the April 2023 election that does not comply with these requirements. A technical specification for the paper rolls has also been announced for the local elections, which does not meet the manufacturer’s requirements. As a result, Smartmatic submitted a letter to the CEC on October 20 that the problems remain and in this case refuses to accept warranty claims. So far, no response to this letter has been received.

5. Ms. Neikova tried to speculate about some questionable 200 machines for the 2021 elections, for which she did not know where they came from, where they were and what they would be used for. This statement is absolutely misleading and false, as we already informed her in writing on November 10, 2021 about the storage location and purpose of these machines. Moreover, by Resolution No. 12221 of 29.11.2021 of the Supreme Administrative Court, the actions to detain the machines were declared illegal and these machines were returned to Ciela Norma.

All these facts refute the untruths expressed by Mrs. Neikova on the air of the “Panorama” show, and lead to the thought that these serious problems were not caused by ignorance or carelessness, but perhaps intentionally.

The full position of Ciela Norma can be found at www.ciela.net.

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