Minister Svetlan Stoev: For the elections on July 11 abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is doing twice as much work with the same deadlines and human resources

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did twice as much work on the organisation of the elections on July 11, 2021 abroad in twice as many sections than on the elections on April 4, 2021, but under the same conditions, deadlines and human resources. This was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Svetlan Stoev at a briefing on the organisation of the vote abroad, 128 hours and five days before the opening of the first overseas section in Auckland, New Zealand.

The Foreign Minister, together with the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Working Group "Elections" Ivan Kondov and Kalin Anastasov, took stock of the work done by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the vote abroad:

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made it possible to open polling stations in the most remote corners of the world: the westernmost of the 782 sections in 68 countries is located in San Francisco, USA, the easternmost - in Auckland, New Zealand, the northernmost - in Tromso, Norway, and the southernmost - in Christchurch, New Zealand. Our compatriots will also be able to vote from Tokyo in Japan, from Nigeria, Bavaro in the Dominican Republic to Argentina, including Surgut and South Africa.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs transported 9 tons of voting machines and over 10 tons of ballot papers and ballots, which it will return to Bulgaria after the vote. More than 5,000 accounting documents have been processed, as well as several thousand grams and diplomatic notes.

• To date, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has delivered all 421 machines that are stored in our foreign missions. They are to be transported to the relevant sections to be handed over to the Sectional Election Commission (SEC). With machines, our compatriots will be able to vote in 273 polling stations in 24 countries.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bulgarian communities have organisationally and technically ensured the work of the SECs abroad. Proposals have been made for staffing the SECs abroad, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects the CEC to urgently determine the final composition of the SECs after the last information was submitted to the CEC on July 3, 2021.

• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent 380 persons abroad, and 2530 persons were nominated by the Bulgarian communities and our foreign representations as members of the SECs. About 1,350 persons have been nominated for SEC members abroad by political parties.

Minister Stoev drew the attention to several issues on which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects decisions from CEC, as there are only 5 days left until the opening of the first section abroad. It was emphasised at the briefing that no methodological instructions have been published yet, and no training has been conducted by the CEC for those seconded as SEC members abroad, especially for those who will be engaged in the machine-voting sections. We were not provided with any audio-visual materials to explain how to vote abroad, nor with training materials for the SEC members. Although we have sent an inquiry to the CEC more than 3 weeks ago, there is no decision regarding the place and manner of filling in the declaration under Article 33. It is important that this issue is resolved before the start of the election day so that there are no conflicting interpretations by sectional election commissions and political parties. It is also unclear how the election results from abroad will be reported by the polling stations where machine viting is applied.

In connection with the epidemic situation, Svetlan Stoev expressed hope that given the reduction in the number of newly infected with COVID-19 and the easing of restrictions in many countries, the election day abroad will go smoothly.

At the briefing, our Foreign Minister also noted possible future changes in the Electoral Code, which he said should be made based on the recommendations of international election observers, as well as an analysis after the elections themselves.

"When the elections are over, the newly elected parliament shall make an analysis of the election process based on the recommendations of the international observers. And if we want to have a modern Electoral Code, it is time for the Bulgarian politicians to comply with these recommendations,” said Svetlan Stoev.

He stressed that the Foreign Ministry also makes an analysis after each election abroad and makes recommendations to the CEC, very few of which have been taken into account over the years.

Minister Stoev shared the opinion that the CEC should be a professional, not a political body, and voting with either ballots or machines is not the appropriate way to hold elections abroad. The most common way of voting abroad is by mail, emphasised our Foreign Minister and expressed hope that soon Bulgarians abroad would be able to vote this way, and in the future - electronically, following the example of Estonia.

Svetlan Stoev thanked the host countries for the consents given for the elections to be held on their territories. He emphasised that the non-consents received were very few. They are for the section in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia, and for two sections in Germany, one in Mannheim and one in Stuttgart. However, there are already open sections in the two German cities - 2 in Mannheim and 3 in Stuttgart. At the moment, a consent is expected for opening a section in Novi Sad in Serbia, and for Bonn, due to the refusal of the hotel previously consented to open a section, a permission is expected for a new address. The closest section to Bonn is the one in Cologne.

In case of change of addresses, the Bulgarian citizens should follow the information on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the section "Elections": https://mfa.bg/bg/3715, as well as on the website of the respective foreign representation.

Svetlan Stoev and the leadership of the Working Group "Elections" thanked the employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other departments of the state administration, who will be seconded as members of the SECs abroad, as well as colleagues from our diplomatic and consular missions who organise the elections in a busy period at the end of the first half of the year.

Special thanks were also extended to the representatives of the Bulgarian communities abroad, whose activity in the democratic process, as well as their role in the organisation and preparation of the vote, has been constantly growing in recent years. Bulgarians abroad are the most valuable partner in organising the elections there, they keep Bulgaria in their hearts, said Minister Stoev.