site.btaLocal Elections: 71 Parties and Three Coalitions Registered for Participation

Local Elections: 71 Parties and Three Coalitions Registered for Participation

Sofia, September 17 (BTA) - The Central Election Commission (CEC) told a regular news conference on Thursday that 71 parties and three coalitions had been registered for participation in the October 25 local elections.

Registration was denied to three parties and seven registrations were struck off, CEC Spokesperson Kamelia Neikova said.

The election campaign will take place between September 25 and midnight on October 23. The information campaign on the national referendum on remote electronic voting, which will be held at the same time as the local elections, will involve 30 parties, one coalition and eight nomination committees. Those in favour of remote e-voting are 24 parties, one coalition and three nomination committees. Six parties and five nomination committees are against.

The requests for voting sections abroad are 1,149, of which 1,117 were sent to CEC's website. The largest number of requests, 233, came from the United States, followed by Bulgarians in Germany with 151. The requests from Britain are 132, Canada 76, the Netherlands 59, Greece 47 and Austria 44. The deadline is September 29 and requests usually increase exponentially towards the end.

The CEC will adopt the rules on the information campaign on the referendum in the coming days