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Voter turnout at the local election runoff in Bulgaria on November 5

The second round of local election in Bulgaria is taking place in normal conditions

| updated on 11/5/23 7:23 PM
Photo: Archive

One hour before the end of the second round of local elections in Bulgaria, turnout in Sofia was 33.4%. In Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, 22.7 per cent of voters went to the polls, 30.5 per cent in Varna and 40.2 per cent in Blagoevgrad, according to exit poll data from Gallup International Balkan, BNR's partner in covering the local elections.
Turnout at 5 p.m. was 25.9 per cent in Sofia, 17.4 per cent in Plovdiv and 24 per cent in Varna. In Blagoevgrad, 33.9% of those eligible to vote had cast their ballots by that hour. These are the results of the exit poll conducted by Gallup International Balkan. By comparison, in the second round of the October 2019 local elections, 33.33% of voters had cast their ballots by 5.30 p.m.
47 out of a total of 5,900 machines across the country experienced various technical problems. Only paper ballots were used in these polling stations.

As of 3 p.m., voter turnout in the second round of the local elections was 19.5% in Sofia, 13.5 % in Plovdiv, 18.8 % in Varna and in Blagoevgrad 27.1 percent, according to the exit poll in front of the polling stations of Gallup International Balkan, which is a partner of the BNR in covering the local elections.

As of 1 p.m., voter turnout in the second round of local elections in Sofia was 12.4%, in Plovdiv - 9 %, Blagoevgrad - 19.1%, in Varna - 12.8%, according to an exit poll conducted by the Gallup International Balkan agency.

Voter turnout in the second round of the local elections in Bulgaria as of 11 a.m. was 5.2% in Sofia, 3.9% in Plovdiv, 5.8% in Varna, 10.5 in Blagoevgrad, according to information from the preliminary survey by the Gallup International Balkan agency. 

Election day in Bulgaria began peacefully, the Interior Ministry announced. The units in "Bulgarian identity documents" work from 08.30 to 19.00 and will issue certificates for lost or damaged identity cards and expired documents.

5,898 are the voting machines available in polling stations in the country with more than 300 voters. Several machines have malfunctioned, the Central Election Commission announced.
Gallup International Balkan is a partner of BNR in covering the local elections. The director of the agency Parvan Simeonov reminded that the conducted exit poll and parallel counting in front of the polling stations are sample studies of a predictive nature and should not be taken as the final result! 
The purpose of the exit poll and the parallel counting of the votes, in addition to being informative, is also a guarantee for the fairness of the elections, explained Simeonov. He urged voters to respond to their pollsters. "Gallup" will monitor the vote in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Blagoevgrad and will count in parallel in Vidin and Shumen. 

As of 9 a.m., voter turnout in Sofia was 1.3%, in Plovdiv 1.1%, in Blagoevgrad 4.3%, in Varna 1.5%, Silistra and Shumen, the Ministry of the Interior announced.



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