Voter turnout

BELGRADE - The voter turnout in Sunday's elections in Serbia was 47.68 percent at 6 pm, the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) announced.

The director of the national statistical office Miladin Kovacevic said that 47.44 percent of registered voters in central Serbia have voted by 6 pm, as have 48.34 percent and 47.14 percent of voters in Vojvodina and Belgrade, respectively.

Bulgaria on Thursday introduced mandatory voting for its citizens, France's AFP agency is reporting.

According to this, the motive behind the decision is the Bulgarian government's hope to boost low election turnout "and battle rampant vote-buying in one of the European Union's most corrupt countries."

The Legal Affairs Commission in Bulgaria's Parliament has approved a change to the Election Code that makes voting compulsory, public radio broadcaster BNR reported on Thursday.

MPs from  opposition Socialist Party and predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms disagreed with the proposed change to the Election Code.

The Bulgarian parliament is expected to deliver its opinion on the introduction of remote electronic voting on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee approved the introduction of electronic voting.

The issue was the subject of a referendum which was held simultaneously with the local elections on October 25 last year.

A committee with Bulgaria's Parliament is set to debate on Tuesday a draft bill that supports the introduction of online voting.

The head of Parliament's legal committee, Danail Kirilov (from the main ruling GERB party) is quoted by Dnevnik.bg as saying he will propose that amendments to electoral law should be adopted by the end of April to allow citizens to vote online.

Turkey witnessed a new high on Nov. 1 with a turnout of over 85 percent of eligible voters in the snap elections held only five months after the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Turkey's voters are expected to head to polling stations on Nov. 1 in even greater numbers than the June 7 elections in a development that could be advantageous for all parties, according to survey companies.

The voter turnout at the local elections, which took place in Bulgaria on Sunday, is the third highest among all elections held in the country since 2009.

The voter turnout has also registered a slight increase compared to the last local elections in 2011.

An unprecedented hack attack to which the Central Election Commission of Bulgaria and several ministries were exposed on local elections day last week will not affect voting results, officials say.

Bulgarians living abroad overwhelmingly voted "yes" in the referendum on the introduction of remote electronic voting, which was held simultaneously with the local elections on Sunday.

With 98.3 % of the ballots processed, the figures show that 92.06 % of the votes were in favour of the introduction of remote electronic voting, while only 7.94 % were against.