Polling stations abroad opened at 9pm Bulgarian time on 24 October, the Foreign Ministry press office said. Voting for president and vice president began in Auckland, New Zealand. Bulgarians in California and Nevada in the US vote last, with polling there ending at 5am Bulgarian time on Monday, 26 October.
The campaign began on 23 September, when the Central Election Commission had already registered 27 pairs of candidates. Campaigning stopped at midnight on 23 October.
How it began: Campaign for the 25 October presidential election starts today
There are 613 polling stations abroad, in 60 countries. The UK and Northern Ireland have the most, with 82. Turkey has 78, Germany 70, Spain 67 and the US 44. Italy has 29 stations, Greece and the Netherlands 24 each, France 18, Austria 17, Belgium 16, Canada 15, and Moldova and Switzerland 11 each.
People vote by machine at 242 of the stations, and 280 machines have been delivered. Warsaw, Bucharest, Bratislava, Budapest and Helsinki will have machine voting for the first time. Ballot papers, other election materials and machines have reached the stations by air and by land, the Foreign Ministry said.
Central Election Commission spokeswoman Stoyanka Balova said earlier this week that 38,227 Bulgarian citizens are on the voter lists abroad. In all, 6.59m people can vote in the presidential election, and 46,001 of them will vote for the first time.
Voters on the advance lists do not have to fill in a declaration for the polling station commission on election day. Bulgarians who did not apply to vote abroad can also vote at a station of their choice. They give the commission a declaration, on a set form, saying they meet the conditions, have not voted and will not vote anywhere else.
The addresses of the stations, by country, are on the Foreign Ministry website, in the section "Election of president and vice president of the Republic of Bulgaria on 25 October 2026".