site.btaBulgarians Vote in Early Parliamentary Elections

102 BULGARIA - PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS - START

Bulgarians Vote in Early
Parliamentary
Elections


Sofia, October 5 (BTA) - Bulgarians are going to the polls on
Sunday to elect their new lawmakers - for the second time in 16
months. Snap elections became imminent when a government
supported by the Socialist Party and the Movement for Rights and
Freedom resigned in July after a difficult year of mass street
protests, general political instability and financial crunch.

These are the country's ninth parliamentary elections since the
start of democratic changes in 1989, the fourth to be held
before the legislature has served its full four-year term of
office, and the first governed by the new Election Code adopted
in March 2014.

For the first time in these national parliamentary elections,
voters in domestic sections will be able to express a preference
for a particular candidate on the party or coalition list of
their choice.

The 240 seats in the next Parliament are contested by 6,063
candidates, including those standing simultaneously in two
constituencies (the maximum number admissible). They have been
nominated by a total of 56 political parties, of which 38
grouped in 7 coalitions and 18 running on straight tickets. Four
independent candidates have entered the race through nomination
committees.

A total of 6,875,195 Bulgarians are eligible to vote on Sunday.

The polls opened at 6:00 a.m. and will close at 7:00 p.m.
Bulgarian time in this country and local time abroad,
respectively. By exception, if voters are still waiting outside
the polling site at 7:00 p.m., voting may continue until 8:00
p.m.

Separate combined white ballots are used for each constituency.

Experimental machine voting, by means of touch-screen voting
machines, is available at 300 sections in five constituencies.
The experimental machine voting results will be ignored in
determining the election results.

Thirty-nine Bulgarian non-governmental organizations will
monitor Sunday's elections with the help of 17,429 observers.
Seven international and foreign organizations have registered
observation missions with a total of 69 observers: the Council
of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, the Central Election Commission of
the Republic of Kosovo, and the Istanbul-based Marmara Group
Strategic and Social Research Foundation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is organizing an International
Press Centre for the elections at Sofia's National Palace of
Culture. The winners and losers will give their election night
news conferences there.

Six sociological agencies have registered to conduct exit polls
on polling day: AFIS, Gallup International, Alpha Research,
Sova-5, the Institute for Social Surveys and Marketing MBMD, and
Exacta Research Group.

Exit poll results may be made public after 7:00 p.m.

The Central Election Commission must declare the voting results,
the votes received and the allocation of seats within four days
after polling day and must name the elected MPs within seven
days after polling day. LG/LG