site.btaMore than 30,000 Applications Submitted for Voting Outside Bulgaria for 27 October Elections

A total of 30,688 applications have been confirmed for voting outside Bulgaria in the upcoming early parliamentary elections on October 27, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said Wednesday.  At 24:00 Bulgarian time on Tuesday, the deadline for submitting an electronic application to vote at a polling station outside the country expired.

The largest number of applications by Bulgarian citizens was submitted in Turkey - 18,275. Germany came second with 2,342 applications, followed by the United Kingdom with 1,943, Spain with 1,278 and the United States with 1,210.

The fewest applications were submitted from Jordan - 10; Iceland - 9; Kuwait - 9; Saudi Arabia - 7; Qatar - 6; Republic of Korea - 6; Mexico - 5; Azerbaijan - 4; Tunisia - 4; Egypt - 4; Morocco - 4; Algeria - 3; Montenegro - 3. With one application each are Indonesia, Colombia, Cuba, Latvia, Malaysia, Nepal, San Marino and Ukraine.

The CEC's deadline to determine the countries and the number of polling stations where overseas voting will take place is October 5. By Friday, the heads of Bulgarian diplomatic and consular missions can send reasoned proposals to the CEC for the formation of polling stations outside the country.

According to the Electoral Code, the polling stations outside the country are formed in the premises of the diplomatic and consular representations of Bulgaria, as well as in case of not less than 40 applications for voting abroad. At the discretion of the heads of the diplomatic and consular representations, based on the total number of applications submitted or the total number of voters in previous elections, including when the number of applications submitted for a particular location is less than 40, a reasoned proposal for opening polling stations shall be sent to the CEC no later than 22 days before election day, the law further states.