site.btaUPDATED 24 Political Entities to Run in April 19 Early Parliamentary Elections

The Central Election Commission (CEC) has greenlighted 24 political entities out of 27 applicants to stand in the early parliamentary elections on April 19, CEC Deputy Chair and Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva said on Thursday during the election authority’s first regular briefing on the upcoming vote.

One party was removed from the list after it withdrew its application, and two coalitions were denied registration for the elections, the CEC said.

The deadline for parties and coalitions to apply for participation in the elections expired on Wednesday at 5pm.

Mateva said that CEC starts an information campaign on Friday.

A banner for the April 19 elections on the CEC website is now active and anybody can find various information regarding the presidential decrees for the elections; the timeline; the election stationary; CEC decisions; machine voting; registers; the constituency election commissions; personal data protection; overseas voting.

After March 7, voters will be able to check there whether they are on lists for support for parties and coalitions for the purpose of registration for the elections. If somebody finds their name on a list and they are sure they have not signed up, they can file an alert with the Commission for Personal Data Protection, said Mateva. 

Bulgarians can apply for overseas voting by March 24. Applications can be filed in person with the diplomatic representations in the respective country or online from the beginning of March 6. 

The number of voting sections and their locations will be clear on March 28.

Bulgaria has 12,837 machines but it has never used more than 10,000 machines. "We have enough voting machines," said Mateva.

All 31 constituency election commissions have been appointed. Agreement was reached during consultations with regional governors for only two of the commissions, so for the remaining 29 CEC appointed the members ex officio. Four appeals have been filed against decisions appointing constituency election commissions (in Ruse, Plovdiv Region, Targovishte and Silistra) and a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court is expected, Mateva said.

CEC has determined that the number of members in each section election commission will be up to nine, as there are nine parliamentary parties and coalitions entitled to at least one representative in each section commission. The minimum number of members is five, Mateva added.

The decision explicitly states that, once appointed, changes to the composition of section commissions may be made only under the conditions set out in Article 51(2) of the Election Code: resignation by a member, entry into force of a court sentence, placement under guardianship, or permanent inability to perform duties. Only in these cases a section commission can replace members, including on election day if a member fails to appear, Mateva explained.