site.btaCentral Election Commission Reports Record Number of Polling Districts Abroad

Central Election Commission Reports Record Number of Polling Districts Abroad

Sofia, September 17 (BTA) - The number of polling districts
abroad is higher for the forthcoming early general elections,
and the increase in Turkey is not at all the most significant
one, Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesperson Tsvetozar
Tomov said in reply to a journalist's question at a CEC briefing
Wednesday. He added that the increase is far greater in
European countries and the US.

In his words, a record-high number of polling districts abroad
have been registered during the ongoing election campaign and
this corresponds with the spirit of the Election Code and CEC's
expectations, according to which everything possible should be
made so as to facilitate the participation of Bulgarians abroad
in the voting on October 5.

The district election commissions for the early general
elections are 136 in Turkey. "They have always been the highest
in number, but we are observing the Election Code: we cannot
have one procedure for Turkey and another for the rest of the
countries in the world," Tomov said.

Kamelia Neykova of CEC explained that an August decision of the
Commission sets the rules for opening the so-called automatic
districts abroad: at least 100 Bulgarians must have cast their
vote at the polling districts in question at the previous
elections. A new district is opened when applications for voting
have been submitted. The higher the number of applications
submitted in a given country and settlement, the higher the
number of polling districts there, Neykova said. She specified
that in Turkey the automatic districts are 126 and the new ones
are ten.

The reasons why CEC refuses to register observers of the
election process are related to confirmed connections between
the specific organization nominating the observers and one of
the parties running in the elections, Tomov said in reply to a
question.