Bulgaria goes to the polls

On Aril 2, 2023, Bulgaria holds early parliamentary elections.

A total of 14 parties and 7 coalitions are taking part in the fifth early parliamentary elections in the past two years.

Close to 5,000 MP candidates (1,341 women and 3,225 men) will take part in the race for 240 seats in Bulgaria's Parliament.

The official campaign period began on March 3 and came to a close at midnight on March 31.

Voting opens at 7.00 o’clock and closes at 20.00. If there are queues of waiting voters outside polling stations, voting can be extended until 21.00.

6,594,593 million Bulgarians are eligible to vote.

Preparation of polling stations was carried out as scheduled throughout the country.

Voting will take place in close to 12,000 polling stations across the country. Voters would be able to use ballot papers as well as electronic voting machines. Voting machines will be available in 9,366 polling stations.

There are 737 polling stations abroad, in 61 countries. The laregst number of polling stations abroad is in Turkey - 162.

After the election papers and machines were handed over and checked on April 1, the polling stations were sealed and put under security till the morning on April 2. Members of the polling station commissions also tested the video surveillance system - the first time there will be such a systems in elections in the country.

Livestream video surveillance of the vote count in each polling station will be available on the website https://evideo.bg/, the Ministry of e-governance said.