Bulgaria, Presidential and Municipal Elections, 23 October 2011: Interim Report

On 15 July 2011, the Bulgarian parliament set the date of the presidential election for 23 October. President Georgi Parvanov issued a decree calling municipal elections for the same day, in line with transitional provisions of the Election Code providing for simultaneous presidential and municipal elections. Following an invitation from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Bulgaria to the OSCE to observe the elections and based on the findings and conclusions of the Needs Assessment Mission, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) established a Limited Election Observation Mission (LEOM) on 28 September. The LEOM, led by Vadim Zhdanovich, consists of an 11-member core team based in Sofia and 10 long-term observers (LTOs) who were deployed on 2 October to 5 locations around the country. Mission members are drawn from 15 OSCE participating States. In line with OSCE/ODIHR standard methodology for election observation, the mission will not carry out comprehensive or systematic observation of election-day proceedings, but intends to visit a limited number of polling stations...