The October 2007 local elections in the town of Petrich in southern Bulgaria next to the border with Greece were declared void by the Supreme Administrative Court on June 30 2008, Focus news agency said.

The court's decision is final and can not be appealed. The complaint against the results was filed by a group of seven parties, among them the Law and Order and Justice party, Bulgarian Social Party, National Movement for Stability and Progress and the ultra-nationalist Ataka party.

The court found that in six of the polling stations the election day ended after 8pm, an hour later then the time provided in the law.

Bulgarian Social-Democracy party won six seats in the municipal council, more than any other party, followed by the Union of Democratic Forces with four seats. Citizens for The European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian) and Ataka got three each with the rest of the places in the 33-seat council distributed among seven other parties.

New elections will have to be scheduled.

The court's decision coincided with the first session of the municipal council of Petrich neighbouring town Sandanski. The city held elections for municipal councilors on June 7 2008  after the Administrative Court in Blagoevgrad declared the results of the October 2007 local elections void due to numerous violations of election procedures, mainly because of the shortage of election ballots.

Local elections in the towns of Kazanlak and Roman, in central Bulgaria, have also been declared void by courts.