Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Dispatches 129 Representatives to Polling Stations Abroad

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry will dispatch a total of 129 Sofia-based employees to organize the first and the second rounds of the presidential elections abroad.

The majority of the officials, 115, will be sent to Turkey, the Foreign Ministry's press office said in a statement.

The representatives of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry will act as members of sectional electoral commissions.

All voting stations in Turkey will have Foreign Ministry officials on their staff.

All other countries where Bulgarians will be able to cast votes have been provided with electoral staff from the ranks of the diplomatic and consular representations.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) authorized the opening of 161 polling stations in 58 countries for the October 23 2011 presidential elections.

A total of 300 000 ballots were printed out and sent to the voting units abroad.

Under the Bulgarian Election Code, protocols from sectional electoral commissions abroad are to be filed electronically straight after the end of the election day.

To enable the instant submission of the protocols, the Foreign Ministry has provided 59 laptops for the sections located outside diplomatic or consular representations.

Six foreign organizations have been authorized to send observers, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE), Danish NGO SILBA, Germany's Green Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC).