Bulgaria presidential election sees technical issues and voting anomalies

The second round of the presidential election in Bulgaria was marked by various technical difficulties and procedural anomalies. The Ministry of Innovation and Digital Transformation reported that over 99.8% of the 11,902 voting machines functioned correctly, with only 28 machines experiencing issues. Veselin Todorov, executive chief of the supplier Siela Norma, noted that repairs for malfunctioning machines cost approximately 115 euros on average and that most issues involved printers, paper, or card readers.

Several unusual incidents were reported across different regions. In Plovdiv, a living voter was mistakenly listed as deceased due to a technical error involving a namesake, but was allowed to vote after verifying his identity. In Haskovo, one vote was declared invalid after a voter filmed their ballot, which violates Central Electoral Commission guidelines. Additionally, some voters in the Haskovo region prematurely removed their cards from machines, preventing the printing of receipts, though officials stated the votes were still recorded.

In Sofia, officials noted discrepancies in some sections where the number of printed receipts did not match the number of recorded votes, though specific instructions for handling these cases have not yet been provided by the Central Electoral Commission.