Mixed voting in 108 sections in Velikotarnovo

The organization of the election process in 142 sectional committees in the municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, where runoffs will be held tomorrow, is going smoothly. In 108 of the sections, there will be mixed voting – by machine and by paper ballot. There will also be runoffs for mayor of the municipality in the town of Kilifarevo and the large villages of Samovodene and Ledenik.

During the distribution of ballots and election papers, the Municipal Electoral Commission in Veliko Tarnovo also gives additional instructions to the electoral bodies. The Deputy Chairperson of the OIC Kalina Romanova:

“We are only telling them to be careful, because this time we also have a machine, to separate the ballot boxes, to keep track of who places their respective choice”.

In Kilifarevo, the paper ballots for the election of the mayor of a municipality and for the mayor of a town hall will be placed in one urn, and the machine receipts for both elections in another urn. The commissions will also fill in two protocols. About their expectations, the presidents of two of the sections in Kilifarevo, Nejme Nikolova and Victoria Atanasova, stated:

“No, we have no worries. We cannot say how the voters will vote – with a machine or with a paper ballot,” commented Nikolova.

“We expect the election day to pass peacefully, we are prepared. In the first round, there was a large percentage of invalid ballots. Now I expect them to be less,” Atanasova pointed out.

In the first round in the municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, invalid ballots for the election of the mayor were 2%, and for councilors – 12.5%. Between the two rounds based on the proposals of the political formations, the Municipal Election Commission changed 55 members of sectional committees, half of them are in leadership positions. Regarding the expectations of invalid ballots in the runoff and the work of the non-premium trained sectional teams, the deputy chairperson of the OIC Kalina Romanova commented:

“Now, to be honest, I don’t expect there to be that many invalid ballots, even reduced to the absolute minimum. In terms of replacements, we don’t have a very big change in the turnover of the chairmen of the sectional election commissions. The process will go smoothly and harmoniously.”

Worked on the publication: Vencislav Vassilev