"The British Ambassador to Bulgaria Rob Dixon attended the meeting at the Central Election Commission because he helped us meet with “Smartmatic”. The company is headquartered in London and we were able to arrange a meeting with a representative of “Smartmatic” thanks to the assistance of the British Ambassador. So far, we have exchanged a lot of correspondence regarding the need to upgrade the software owned by the state, because for the first time voting in local elections will be done by machines and this software needs to be further developed, Rositsa Mateva, Deputy Chairperson and Spokesperson of the Central Election Commission said for BNR. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel and Finance Minister Assen Vassilev were invited and attended the meeting. “Vazrazhdane” party raised the issue of Rob Dixon’s visit to the Central Election Commission at the start of the autumn session of Bulgaria’s National Assembly. “Vazrazhdane” suspected foreign interference in the elections. Rositsa Mateva was adamant that there was no danger of such a thing. The softwarfe of the voting machines is the property of the Bulgarian state, but to further develop it, we will need to cooperate with “Smartmatic" which created the software", explained Rositsa Mateva.