Machine voting will take place in 129 polling stations outside the country for the April 19 vote, Central Election Commission (CEC) chair Kamelia Neykova said at a briefing at the Ministry of E-Governance (MEU). Earlier today, a hash code was generated at the MEU, which will be printed on the machine's control receipt and on each ballot for the April 19 elections.
On April 8, or at the latest April 9, the voting machines abroad must be checked and ready for transportation, Neykova specified.
On Saturday, the CEC decided to open 493 polling stations in 55 countries for the April 19 elections. For comparison – on October 27, 719 polling stations were opened abroad in 57 countries. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Turkey, and the USA will have 254 fewer polling stations compared to the October 27, 2024 vote. The reason is that at the beginning of the year, parliament adopted amendments to the Election Code, which limited to 20 the number of polling stations outside of our diplomatic and consular missions in countries that are not members of the European Union.