site.btaVoter Lists Identify over 6.6 Mln Voters

Voter lists identify 6,602,990 voters, Central Election Commission (CEC) Spokesperson Tsvetozar Tomov told a news briefing on Thursday. He said this is not the definitive number of eligible voters because more names will be added as people go to the polls on October 2.

The necessary paper ballots and voting machines have been sent to the out-of-country locations. The section election commissions have been formed. A total of 11,636 voting sections will be functioning in Bulgaria. Machine voting will be the voting method in 9,369 of them, including 1,105 sections equipped with two machines each and the remainder with one each. In 2,785 sections, voting will be carried out by paper ballot, Tomov said.

Out-of-country voting sections total 755. Machine voting will be the voting method in 301 of them, using a total of 539 devices. In 454 sections abroad, voting will be carried out by paper ballot.

A total of 11,013 voting machines will be used on October 2. The number of ballot papers which have been printed is 7,963,400, including 710,000 to be used abroad.

A total of 1,954 women and 4,670 men will contest the 240 seats in the National Assembly. There are 1,296 candidates registered on two different lists each.

Four polling agencies have been registered to conduct exit polls on October 2. These are Alpha Research, Gallup International Balkan, Trend Research Centre and Market Links.

Eighteen organizations will officially observe the elections, CEC Spokesperson Rossitsa Mateva said.

Additional voting sections are to be set up in hospitals, social care establishments and prisons, Mateva added. They will use separate lists of voters after the respective individuals are removed from the lists that have been compiled on a permanent address basis.

CEC will publish a hash code for the elections.