Central Election Commission

Voter turnout for the whole country as of 11:00 am is at 12.3%, Central Election Commission Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva said at a briefing Saturday at 11:30 am. 

The lowest turnout is registered in Plovdiv - 7.25%, and the highest in Bolyarovo Municipality (Southeastern Bulgaria) - 33.94%.

"The Central Election Commission's decision was taken in violation of the Election Code". This was stated by Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov in a statement in front of journalists.

He made serious criticisms of the CEC's decision to stop machine voting.

A day before the local elections, a huge scandal broke out. It was created by "There Is Such a People" (TISP) with the cooperation of the State Agency for National Security (SANS), and this time instead of manipulation with paper ballots (like the infamous Kostinbrod Affair), it is claimed to be a manipulation of the machines.

The GERB-SDS coalition registered Anton Hekimyan as a candidate for Mayor of Sofia in the Municipal Election Commission.

Hekimyan was until recently the director of "News and Current Affairs" on bTV. On Saturday, he surprisingly left his position. In bTV he went through the entire ladder - intern, reporter, editor, TV presenter.

The military, who staged a coup in Gabon yesterday, announced the commander of the Republican Guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema, as the "interim president" of the West African country, AFP reported.

The communiqué was read out last night on Gabon 24 TV.

Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev signed a decree today scheduling the elections for mayors and municipal councilors for October 29.

The head of state has determined the date after a working meeting with representatives of the leadership of the Central Election Commission (CEc).

The Socialist Party led by Prime Minister Edi Rama is ahead in most municipalities in the country after Sunday's local elections and has already won three, Kamza, Vora and Elbasan, where the voting took place electronically and the Central Election Commission was able to declare the results a few hours after polls closed.

Kosovo authorities have been installing containers in four Serb-dominated northern municipalities to be used as polling stations on Sunday, when voters are called to cast ballots in disupted local elections that most locals are likely to boycott.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia will insist that extraordinary local elections for four Serb majority municipalities in the north of Kosovo be held after the long-promised Association of Serb Municipalities is established.

The leader of "There Is Such a People" Slavi Trifonov has submitted an application refusing to be a representative in the 49th National Assembly, it became known at today's meeting of the Central Election Commission, reports BTA. Trifonov's application was accepted with 12 votes "for" and one "against".