site.btaCentral Election Commission: Campaign for March 26 Parliamentary Elections to Start on February 24 and to End on March 24

Central Election Commission: Campaign for March 26 Parliamentary Elections to Start on February 24 and to End on March 24

Sofia, February 23 (BTA) - The month-long campaign for Bulgaria's March 26 early parliamentary elections will begin on February 24 and will end at 24:00 hrs on March 24, 2017, Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesperson Alexander Andreev told a news briefing on Thursday.

February 28 is the deadline for submission of applications for voting abroad, Andreev recalled. A total of 21,516 applications have been entered so far on the CEC website, and another 402 have been relayed by the Foreign Ministry from the Bulgarian consular posts abroad. To date, 7,566 applications have arrived from Turkey, 2,395 from the UK, 1,687 from Spain, and 1,666 from Germany. The CEC has until March 4 to determine the places of voting sections abroad.

Now that the Agrarian Youth Union Association has asked to be removed from the register, four organizations have so far submitted documents to monitor the elections with 17 observers in aggregate. The closing date for such submissions is March 25.

The CEC showed the specimen of the ballot for the March 26 elections, which has been gazetted and posted on the Commission's website. The ballot lists the names of the parties and coalitions registered for the elections, numbered in the order assigned by lot, with a "None Of The Above" option at the bottom. Up to 17 preferences can be marked in circles on the right-hand side of the ballot. Preferences are not available for voting abroad.

The longest candidate list is for Sofia's Multimember Constituency No. 24, where 16 seats are contested, Andreev said. He recalled that unless a preference is marked, the vote is consiered cast for the leading candidate on the list.

Nine parties and 18 coalitions have registered a total of 4,732 candidates for the 240 seats in the 44th National Assembly. Nomination committees have registered 11 independent candidates, said CEC Spokesperson Kamelia Neikova.