The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Bulgaria is working to organize abroad the forthcoming elections for President and Vice President and elections for Members of Parliament on 14th November 2021.
In order to guarantee the right to vote of our compatriots abroad, the heads of our foreign missions were instructed to establish the necessary organization to carry out all activities related to the preparation of elections arising from the provisions of the Electoral Code and decisions of the Central Election Commission. The necessary steps are being taken through diplomatic channels to obtain the consent of the host countries for the conduct of the vote and for the opening of polling stations on the territory of our diplomatic and consular missions, as well as outside them.
To date, the consent of 55 of the 128 countries has been sought, including those with secondary diplomatic accreditation.
In the framework of the preparation of the vote abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has so far carried out the following activities:
∙ A working group “Elections“ was established;
∙ Working contact has been established with the CEC;
∙ The necessary organization has been made for our foreign missions to provide information on the restrictive measures in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have an impact on the organization of the vote, and it will be regularly sent to the CEC;
∙ Instructions are given for sending invitations for international monitoring in fulfilment of our international commitments and in accordance with the Electoral Code;
∙ On the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as on the websites of the individual diplomatic missions, a section “Elections 14.11.2021” has been opened, in which important information related to voting abroad is published:
https://mfa.bg/bg/izbori-2021. Specific information about the organization of the vote in the individual countries will be published on the websites of the diplomatic and consular missions, as well as on social networks.
As before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will rely on the established coordination with the teams of our foreign missions, as well as on the active cooperation with the representatives of the Bulgarian communities abroad, with whose invaluable partnership and cooperation it became possible to organize the vote abroad at the previous elections this year.
