The deadline for submission of applications for voting in the 2 October election for parliament abroad expires on 6 September.

For now, the number of polling stations that will open outside Bulgaria is 750. Depending on the number of applications submitted, their number could go up. At this time, around 30,000 applications have been submitted, 17,000 of them in Turkey, caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikolay Milkov said for the BNR.

“Usually, around 100 people vote in Ukraine,” he said. Efforts are now focused on restoring the work of the Bulgarian embassy in Kyiv, and then, possibly of the Consulate General in Odessa which closed after the start of the war. The first group of Bulgarian diplomatic staff are leaving this week to inspect the state the buildings and the communications on site.

“We are hoping that by the end of September, the embassy in Kyiv will have resumed its work and that would pave the way to organizing elections there,” Minister Milkov said.