The largest ruling party in Bulgaria, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), demanded the resignation of the Central Election Commission (CIK) over the ballot processing chaos, which has ensued after the local elections held on Sunday.

People responsible for handing in the ballot papers have been forced to stay in the Arena Armeec sports hall in Sofia for more than 48 hours until the election documents have been processed.

People have complained of the lack of water, food and sleep, with several of them fainting as they could not stand the pressure.

On Monday, the government called on CIK to take adequate measures to address the crisis, such as allowing people to leave and come back later, sealing off the hall with the ballot papers and placing them under guard.

The junior coalition partner, the Reformist Bloc (RB), also called on CIK to resign.

Emergency medical crews have examined 80 people and nine have been taken to hospital, private bTV station informs.

Meanwhile, the tensions in the hall continue to run high on Tuesday with around 300 people still left in the hall.

A similar problem with the processing of the ballot papers has been reported in the city of Haskovo.

The processing of the data on voter turnout has also been slowed down as the website of CIK was hacked on Sunday, which necessitated the collection of information over the phone.