Parties can announce their donors electronically

Parties, coalitions and initiative committees registered to participate in elections now have the possibility to declare their donors electronically via a digital certificate. This has become possible after Information Services upgraded the Single Public Register under the Election Code maintained by the Bulgarian National Audit Office.

Until now, donors were only announced on paper. According to the Election Code, the participants in the elections - parties, coalitions and initiative committees, are obliged within 5 days from the opening of the election campaign to submit to the Audit Office information about all their donors, candidates and members of the initiative committees who provided funds, as and data for polling, advertising and PR agencies.

The legislative framework also requires declarations on the origin of donated funds - with personal data deleted. All participations in elections are also required to submit to Single Public Register any subsequent new information during the campaign within 7 days of its occurrence.

The possibility of submitting the data electronically through a digital certificate makes it as easy as possible for the participants in the elections, saves time and effort and significantly increasing the transparency and credibility in the electoral process and the financing of the election campaigns. The upgraded registry has been developed using modern technologies, with a convenient, simple and dynamic user interface. It is a web-based system that also stores information about current and past campaigns. The technology used enables data exchange with existing information systems and registries and official free exchange to provide accurate and up-to-date information in real time.

The upgraded Single Public Register ensures a high level of security of the sent documents. The system is used through a qualified electronic signature (QES), and data security is ensured by a public and private key. The data that the Election Code requires from parties, coalitions and initiative committees can be sent at any time of the day, quickly, easily and conveniently. An additional convenience is that the same person, with one digital certificate, can submit information for several entities after the necessary authorization.