site.btaStandard Forms of Ballots for October 29 Local Elections Endorsed

Bulgaria's Central Election Commission (CEC), meeting on Wednesday, endorsed the standard forms of the voting ballots for the October 29, 2023 local elections and will shortly publish them on its website.

The voting ballot for municipality mayor contains the name of the municipality and the number of the constituency. The left-hand side lists the names of the contestants: parties, local coalitions and independent candidate nomination committees, and a "None Of The Above" option. The sequential numbers of the contestants appear in the centre of the ballot, and the forename, patronymic and surname of the mayoral candidate of a party, coalition or independent are printed on the right-hand side.

The ballot for municipal councillors contains the name of the municipality and the number of the constituency, the sequential numbers and names of the contestants (parties, local coalitions and independent candidates) and a "None Of The Above" option. On the right, there are circles whose number corresponds to the number of members of the Municipal Council, that are to be marked with voter's preference for a particular candidate, designated by the sequential number by which the candidate is registered.

The ballots for a borough mayor and the ballot for a mayoralty mayor were endorsed as well.

In the local elections this coming autumn, citizens will vote for municipal councillors, municipality mayors, borough mayors (in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna), and mayoralty mayors (in settlement with population exceeding 100 residents with a permanent address there by August 4, 2023 (the date when the President's decree scheduling the local election was gazetted). No voting sections aboard are established and no voting abroad is conducted at the local elections, CEC pointed out.