The village of Novo Zhelezare grabbed national attention on Bulgaria’s 23 2011 presidential and municipal election day, thanks to a goat daubed with a ballot number, allegedly in support of a mayoral candidate.
 
The goat, wandering through the village with the number daubed on it, constituted electioneering, forbidden on election day, so rival candidates alerted local election authorities.
 
While there were indications of a strong voter turnout, reported by the Central Election Commission to have been close to 10 per cent by 10am, there were also reports of alleged irregularities. These included vote-buying, election canvassing and a few incidents of errors in ballot papers in some small towns and villages where candidates and parties had been omitted.
 
Bulgarian National Television, on its 12pm bulletin, showed a voting station in Varna where, the station said, the privacy of voting was not secure because thanks to a partly open curtain and the voting booth being placed next to a window, the way that people voted was visible.
 
In a separate report, the station said that the price of a vote in Bourgas had reached a record 300 leva (about 150 euro).
 
In all, by mid-morning more than 500 allegations of irregularities had been received at the Interior Ministry’s operations centre, local news agency Focus said, quoting the ministry.
 
President Georgi Purvanov was pictured turning out to vote, as were a procession of presidential candidates and political party heavyweights.
 
Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry said on its website at 11.30am that voting by Bulgarian citizens in Auckland, New Zealand, and Canberra, Australia, Election Day was over. In New Zealand, 74 Bulgarian citizens voted, and in Australia, 24.
 
As at 11am local time, 133 voting stations broad were operating normally, the ministry said. By that time, 4563 Bulgarian citizens had voted.
 
In Afghanistan, 134 Bulgarian citizens voted in Kabul and 123 in Kandahar.
 
In Turkey, 2698 people had voted, in Moldova, 130, and in Spain, 103.
 
"Abroad, Election Day is proceeding in a relaxed atmosphere," the ministry said.
 
In Bulgaria, exit polls were expected some time after voting ended at 7pm. While voting is still proceeding, publishing information about the outcome of exit polls is forbidden by the Election Code.
 
In other news, some Bulgarian-language websites diverted their readers on Election Day with statistics on the most popular books and food orders in a restaurant.