Bulgaria's Central Election Commission (CEC) held talks with international observers ahead of the presidential election, the commission said. Yesterday it met the group Electio Lab, and today observers from the European Platform for Democratic Elections.

CEC members and representatives of the US, Belgium, Norway, Italy, Germany, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Hungary, Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Argentina and South Africa attended the meetings.

The commission told them how it has prepared for the vote and what it will do to make sure the election is lawful and fair. Most of the time went on the security of machine voting, which will be used at polling stations with more than 300 voters. The talks also covered how the software in the machines is certified and the trusted process used to build the source code.

The CEC says it has taken all the steps needed so that the changes to the Electoral Code and machine voting work effectively, securely and reliably. It says clear and open procedures guarantee a transparent and fair vote, and extra steps are in place to keep the election calm.

Both sides also spoke about working together in future, including observers taking part in round tables.

A week earlier, Information Services showed the public its system for computer processing of data from the presidential election vote.