In a large part of the country, people vote in runoffs in local elections.
In 8 regions, mayors were elected in the first round (October 29) – in Burgas, Stara Zagora, Pernik, Yambol, Vratsa, Montana, Kardjali and Targovishte. In Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and other regional cities, the second round continues today. In total, 91 mayors of municipalities, 451 mayors of town halls and 31 mayors of districts must be elected. There is no runoff for municipal councilors.
The election day starts again at exactly 7:00 a.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. If there are people waiting in front of the sections after this time, voting can be extended, but by a maximum of one hour – until 9:00 p.m.
A valid identity card is required, which must be presented on the spot, or a document from the Ministry of the Interior stating that an application for the issuance of an identity card has been submitted by the respective voter.
In the runoff, 6,380,052 voters have the right to vote. Those voters who acquired voting rights between the first and second rounds, including those who turned 18 on election day, can vote and are included in the electoral rolls. Those who lost electoral rights between the two rounds are excluded from the lists. However, voters who have applied for voting at their current address are included. Likewise, no new applications can be submitted for voting with a mobile Sectional Election Commission. They will be prepared on the basis of the submitted applications for the first round, but where there are less than 10 people included in the electoral list, an election with this commission should not be produced.
Voting will be available in 7,250 polling stations across the country. Abroad, there will be no voting and sections, as well as on October 29.
This time, unlike the first round, it will be possible to vote in addition to a paper ballot and a machine.
We remind you that on October 27, following a report by DANS and the Council of Presidents in the National Assembly, the Central Election Commission (CEC) held an extraordinary meeting and made a decision to stop the machine vote, and in the first round voting was only done with paper ballots. On October 30, after an emergency session, the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) canceled the decision of the CEC and returned the voting machines to the runoff. In their reasons, the magistrates noted that the Commission’s decision was illegal in the part about the runoff. On November 1, the procedure for the entrusted development of the software for the machines by experts at the CEC was also successfully completed. This is the software that will be installed on the runoff voting machines. The software is locked with a key composed of three different passwords of three of the Commission members on a CEC laptop. No one other than the members of the Commission have access to the key.
