Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) starts accepting registration documents of political parties, coalitions and initiative committees for the presidential elections on August 05.

Political parties and initiative committees will not be required to name their candidates but will only have to declare their participation in the presidential race by filing the respective documents.

The deadline for the registration of the presidential tickets is August 23.

Bulgaria's presidential elections, which will be held together with the local vote, have been scheduled for October 23.

Ruling center-right party GERB, which has not yet named a presidential runner, is expected to be the first in line in the registration queue.

The presidential nominee of GERB is to be revealed in September.

Although it carries no benefits, GERB has always taken care to file its election papers first.

The initiative committee supporting former EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva is also expected to register on the first possible date.

Kuneva's team attempted to submit its documents ten days ago, when CEC started accepting bids for the local elections.

The independent presidential candidate had her documents returned with the explanation that the registration for the head-of-state vote starts on August 05.

The committee behind Kuneva's nomination appealed CEC's decision, complaining that the body was only authorized to set a registration deadline, not an opening date, but the plea was rejected by the Supreme Administrative Court.

Rightist Blue Coalition, which consists of the Union of Democratic Forces and the Democrats for Strong Bulgaria parties, is also expected to register on the first possible date.

The right-wing formation has Rumen Hristov as a presidential runner and no vice presidential candidate at this stage.

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