“I was convinced by the printing house that there will be no problems with the printing of the ballot papers for the local elections run-off,” Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for EU Funds and Economic Policies Tomislav Donchev said commenting on the request filed by the printing houses to postpone the second round of the local elections from November 1 to November 8, speaking for Nova TV.

Mr Donchev explained that indeed the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) received a letter that expressed concerns that the printing house of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) might not cope with the printing on time.

“The reason for these concerns was the delay in the handing in of the ballot papers by the regional electoral commissions. Right after the sitting of the Council of Ministers we organised a meeting with the CEC, the printing office and the Information Service company. It turned out that all ballot papers had been filed by the end of the day yesterday,” the Deputy Prime Minister added.

Mr Donchev remarked that he was assured that the ballot papers would be printed on time twice.