Bulgarians are heading to elect mayors and municipal councillors in a vote that will test the stability of the ruling coalition after a month of escalating social tension.

The elections are considered to be as important and interesting as a general vote yet much more complicated due to long ballot papers, thousands of candidates and recently passed restrictions on voting tourism.

Polling stations open at 6 am local time and are due to close at 7 pm as it is possible to continue working one more hour than scheduled if there are still citizens, who want to cast a ballot in each of 11 428 election sections.

A total of 35 district mayors, 2914 mayors of mayoralty, 264 municipal mayors and 5232 municipal councillors are expected to be elected at today's local vote among more than 60,000 runners. They were nominated by 88 parties and coalitions.

This is the first time that the district mayors in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna will be elected in a direct vote as well as the mayors in a few newly declared towns.

The exact number of the citizens across Bulgaria, who are eligible to vote is 6 967 551.

Bulgaria has banned the use of mobile phones and cameras in polling booths in a bid to prevent the widespread practice of vote-buying.

Mobile phones and cameras are believed to be a key element in the scams, producing the evidence that the vote has been cast for a designated candidate by taking a picture of the ballot paper.

A sign will remind voters that the use of mobile phones and cameras is banned upon entering the polling both.

The Central Election Committee said it relies on the voters' good will to leave the devices before casting a ballot.

Bulgaria's parliament passed last week an amendment that criminalizes the selling of votes and provides for up to one year in prison. Buyers of votes face up to three years in jail.

These would be the fifth municipal election in Bulgaria since the fall of communism in 1989.

Under Bulgaria's election law the only way to avoid a run-off ballot is when a candidate receives more that half of the valid votes, and turn out at the elections stand at more than 50 percent.

A run-off is organized within 7 days of the first round of the elections if no mayor is elected. The country's election law also says that if two or more candidates are registered and none of them is elected, only the first two candidates that gathered most of the valid votes on the first round would take part in the run-off.

The candidate who gathered the biggest part of the votes cast during the run-off is elected mayor. If the votes of the two candidates are equal Bulgaria's president in cooperation with the Central Election Committee appoint new election dates.

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