BULGARIANS VOTE IN EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

Voting for Members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria has started.

In the next five-year term of office of the European Parliament, Bulgaria will be represented by 17 MEPs.

The polling stations across the country opened at 6.00 a.m. and will close at 19.00 as required by the law. The polling stations abroad start the election day at 6.00 a.m. and will stay open until 19.00 local time. The law provides for extension of polling hours until 20.00 if there are queues of voters outside the polling stations, waiting to cast their vote.

The territory of the country, including the voting stations outside the limits of the Republic of Bulgaria is a single multi-member constituency.

By the close of voting, which will be announced by the Central Election Commission, no election campaigning is allowed and no results of the opinion polls should be released.

This is the third time Bulgaria holds European Parliament elections. The first ones were held in 2007 when Bulgaria joined EU, the next took place in 2009 and coincided with the European Elections across all member states of the Union.

Voting for MEPs takes place across the EU countries between 22^nd and 25^th May. These are the first elections since the Lisbon Treaty gave the European Parliament a number of new lawmaking powers.

The European Parliament defines the 2014 elections as the most important to date. The reason is the new election procedure and the time they are held as the European Union seeks to pull through the economic crisis and the EU leaders reflect on what direction to take in future.