Bulgaria votes in local elections

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

Bulgaria votes in local elections

The voting rights are 6,227,901
At 7:00 am the elections for municipal councilors and mayors began. According to the CEC-approved electoral rolls, a total of 6,227,901 voters should exercise their right to vote.

 

In the local elections this Sunday, we are voting with several ballots - for mayor of the municipality, for municipal councilors, for mayor of mayoralty. Up to four ballots will be voted in the large regional cities where there is a regional division, such as Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna. The reason is that there is also a newsletter for the mayor of the region, and in the mayoralties to these municipalities - the newsletter for mayor of the mayoralty.

A total of 66 are parties and coalitions that have registered to run in the local elections. The candidates are 36 251 people. Of these, municipal councilors - 29,493, mayors of municipalities - 1,254, mayors of mayoralties - 5041, districts - 463, and mayoralties with only one candidate - 392. Municipalities for which there is only one mayor per municipality - five.

The largest list of candidates for mayors of the municipality is in Sofia - 20 candidates, followed by Plovdiv - 14, Shumen - 13.

The number of mayoralties with more than 350 inhabitants and where there will be mayoral elections is 1968. Compared to 2015, they are smaller, but then it was voted in settlements with more than 100 people and voted in 3188 villages.

A candidate for mayor was elected in the first round if more than 50 percent of those who cast their ballot voted for him. If none of the participants has garnered such support, a second round is held in the settlement between the two candidates who have collected the most votes. The ballot is on November 3, Sunday, one week after the first round.

 

Not all ballots are required to vote in these elections. May vote for mayor, but not municipal councilors, for example, or vice versa.

The lists of municipal councilors are numbered up to 100 and the preferences start from 101. The names of the candidates for municipal councilors are not recorded in the newsletter. If desired, their number can be checked in a list before the polling stations.

In local elections, there are no sections outside the country. There will also be no machine voting in any of these sections.

Campaigning on election day is absolutely forbidden. It is absolutely forbidden in any form or manner to announce the results of a public opinion poll 24 hours before the close of the election day, ie from 00.00 on 26 October. Such results may be announced only after 20.00 on 27 October, when the election day ends.

The vote will be considered valid if you have voted in favor of only one party or coalition by placing an X or V sign in the circle with its blue chemical number. For the first time, the "I do not support anyone" box will be featured in the local election bulletin and will be the last in the ballot.

Voting with a driver's license or a foreign passport is not allowed in the elections. People with incomplete, deleted or incorrect addresses have voting rights and will be able to vote by being added to the electoral rolls. There are settlements with changed street names, so they diverge from the addresses in personal documents. These people will complete a declaration that they have not voted elsewhere.

The Ministry of Interior's services issuing identity documents will work today from 08:30 to 19:30 and will assist Bulgarian citizens who do not have valid identity documents to exercise their right to vote.

The sociological agencies that will conduct exit polls, the so-called exit polls, have a total of 8. There are a total of 8. The CEC recalled that it is absolutely forbidden in any form or manner to announce the results of a public opinion poll on elections 24 hours before the close of the election day, ie from 00.00 on October 26. Such results may be announced only after 20.00 on 27 October, when the election day ends.

The Bulgarian non-governmental organizations registered to observe the elections on 27 October are 13 with a total of 2137 observers.

The latest amendments to the Electoral Code provide one protocol for reporting results. The CEC recommends that the members of the CEC draft the minutes of the vote, the data of which, after being checked, should be recorded in the official minutes.

CEC banned the use of camcorders in schools and other polling stations in order to ensure the secrecy of the vote - from 7.00 to 20.00, and where the election day continues - until 21.00, which will be valid for both rounds. .

In another CEC decision, after the elections, all the electoral rolls will be submitted to DG GRAO for re-examination, as to whether there are voters who have voted in violation of the Electoral Code, ie without voting rights, or have voted. in two places.

The work of mobile electoral sections to people with disabilities and other institutions is also regulated.

In the previous local elections in 2015, turnout was 40.83 percent, with only 17.89 percent in Sofia.