site.btaCentral Election Commission: Record Low Voter Turnout at 5 PM, Higher Interest in Vote Abroad than in July 11 General Elections

Sofia, November 14 (BTA) - Voting in today's regular presidential and early parliamentary elections abroad organized in 750 voting sections is progressing smoothly, Central Election Commission (SEC) Spokesman Tsvetozar Tomov said at the commission;s mid-day briefing. More interest in the voting has been registered than in the July 11 general elections.
      
Counting of voter-verified paper records of machine voting will be relevant only as numbers after the end of election day, CEC specified. These will be grouped according to parties and coalitions, after which the respective annexes will be filled, without accounting for the preferential votes.
   
According to the tally sheet, Bulgarians eligible to vote total 6,635,305, according to which voter turnout will be counted.

A total of 131 alerts and 14 complaints have been submitted at CEC so far, partly for canvassing in the social networks.

At 11 a.m. total voter turnout stood at 8.0 per cent. In the presidential elections - 8.01 per cent and 7.99 per cent in the parliamentary elections.

At 4 p.m. total voter turnout stood at 25.60 per cent (down from 27.20 per cent in the July 11 elections). In the presidential elections - 25.72 per cent and 25.58 per cent in the parliamentary elections. The highest voter turnout (about 32 per cent) is seen in Sofia's 23rd multimember consituency, and the southern town of Kardzhali comes last with 19 per cent, CEC Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva said.

According to CEC, at 4.52 p.m. the turnout for parliamentary and presidential elections in Bulgaria was record low, although there has been some increase in the afternoon, said at a briefing CEC spokesman Tsvetozar Tomov.
        
He said that most probably the turnout, which will be reported by the end of election day, will not exceed 40 per cent.

BR, MT