site.btaCEC Spokeperson: Some 21 Mln Ballot Papers to Be Printed for October 29 Local Elections

Some 21 million ballot papers will be printed for the October 29 local elections, Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

A total of 3606 types of ballot papers will be produced: 265 for municipal councillors, 265 for municipality mayors, 35 for borough mayors and 3041 for mayoralty mayors, she noted.

Mateva pointed out that CEC took a decision to open a public procurement for the production of paper ballots and rolls of specialized paper for machine ballots on Monday. She added that the estimated value is about BGN 9 million.

All candidate lists of parties, coalitions, initiative committees must be registered by 5 pm on Tuesday in order to participate in these elections, Mateva highlighted. The CEC will check, together with the Civil Registration and Administrative Services General Directorate, the Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry, if all candidates registered by the DEC meet the requirements to be elected, she said. Mateva explained that the inspection should be completed by 10 am on September 28.

Negotiations are ongoing on the options of how to visualize the ballots on the screens of the machines, Mateva further stated. "We are discussing the possibility to record machine and paper voting separately, and several versions of protocols are being discussed to make the process easier for CEC members," she added.