Bulgaria votes in local elections ahead of EU windfall
Bulgarians voted Sunday in municipal elections that attracted a record number of candidates.
Sunday, 28.10.2007.
16:30
Bulgarians voted Sunday in municipal elections that attracted a record number of candidates. Polling stations opened at 6:00 a.m. across the Balkan country that joined the European Union in January. Bulgaria votes in local elections ahead of EU windfall By 10:30 a.m. some 15.7 percent of the 6.9 million eligible voters had already cast their ballots, the central electoral commission announced. They were choosing from a total of 60,000 candidates for 5,232 municipal council seats and 3,223 mayoral positions. Commentators said the large number of candidates was largely due to the prospect of EUR 1.4bn in EU regional development funding which the bloc plans to make available to Bulgaria starting this year to 2013. "EU funds for pocketing," the Sega daily newspaper recently titled a full-page article on alleged schemes for siphoning off EU funds. The vote will also prove a mid-term test for the ruling centre-left coalition government of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev. The large number of candidates presented voters with the challenge of finding their preferred choice on a ballot paper that in one municipality ran to 1.2 meters in length to accommodate all the names. The campaign was largely marked by numerous allegations of vote-buying and extra police were called up to monitor the vote in the northeastern town of Dobrich following reports that party representatives had offered money to members of the local Roma community, the national radio reported. Announcing exit poll results is banned during voting in Bulgaria so the first exit polls will be released shortly after polling stations close around 7:00 p.m. Sunday. The first partial official results will be released late Sunday night.
Bulgaria votes in local elections ahead of EU windfall
By 10:30 a.m. some 15.7 percent of the 6.9 million eligible voters had already cast their ballots, the central electoral commission announced.They were choosing from a total of 60,000 candidates for 5,232 municipal council seats and 3,223 mayoral positions.
Commentators said the large number of candidates was largely due to the prospect of EUR 1.4bn in EU regional development funding which the bloc plans to make available to Bulgaria starting this year to 2013.
"EU funds for pocketing," the Sega daily newspaper recently titled a full-page article on alleged schemes for siphoning off EU funds.
The vote will also prove a mid-term test for the ruling centre-left coalition government of Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev.
The large number of candidates presented voters with the challenge of finding their preferred choice on a ballot paper that in one municipality ran to 1.2 meters in length to accommodate all the names.
The campaign was largely marked by numerous allegations of vote-buying and extra police were called up to monitor the vote in the northeastern town of Dobrich following reports that party representatives had offered money to members of the local Roma community, the national radio reported.
Announcing exit poll results is banned during voting in Bulgaria so the first exit polls will be released shortly after polling stations close around 7:00 p.m. Sunday.
The first partial official results will be released late Sunday night.
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