Finally, in the elections on October 25, there will be 27 presidential candidate pairs, nominated by 20 initiative committees and 7 parties. This was announced at a briefing by the CEC spokesperson Stoyanka Balova, quoted by bTV.
On September 27, the deadline for checking the candidates and lists in support of their registration expired.
Balova recalled that today, until 24:00, is the deadline for submitting online applications for voting in countries outside Bulgaria. “Those who still miss the deadline can vote at the nearest polling station, which should open after October 4“.
By 1:30 p.m. today, over 35,500 applications have been submitted in 72 countries. “The exact list of countries and places where there will be polling stations will be determined after October 3“, Balova emphasized.
After a review by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a polling station will be organized where more than 40 people have submitted applications for voting. Then the list of countries will be approved, the CEC spokesperson pointed out.
By October 8, the CEC must also hold consultations on the composition of the election commissions abroad.
„In our country, the total number of sections is currently 11,600, of which 9,311 have more than 300 voters and voting will be done by machine. In the rest – with less than 300 voters, the vote will be by paper ballot“, the CEC spokesperson recalled the latest changes to the Electoral Code.
“The relevant deadlines for mobile polling stations, those in hospitals, are to be determined in October, so this is not the final number of sectional election commissions, emphasized Balova, quoted by BTA.
She also announced that the technical characteristics of the paper ballots and the protection of the specialized paper for machine voting have been approved, and today the public procurement for the production and delivery of paper ballots and the rolls for the specialized machine voting devices will be considered. There are also planned quantities of ballots for a possible run-off.
In compliance with the requirements of the EC, the CEC will also send an invitation to the BNB printing house for negotiations and consultations on concluding a contract.
Balova also announced that the preparation of the voting machine software is also underway. “For the explanatory campaign, we have 200 machines, we expect the demo version to be uploaded to them, so at the beginning of next week we will have the first meetings regarding the information campaign“, she pointed out.
So far, two Bulgarian and three international organizations have registered election observers.
“The register of funds spent on media packages will be updated every Tuesday“, Balova added.