How is the national electoral register created?

ELECTION CODE Promulgated, State Gazette No.19 (Amended on March 7^th 2017)

Article 23
Competent Authority

23.1 The electoral rolls shall be compiled by the municipal administrations in the nucleated settlements where a population register is kept and shall be signed by the municipality mayor or, respectively, by the mayoralty mayor or by the lieutenant mayor, and by the municipal secretary. In the cities subdivided into boroughs, the electoral rolls shall be signed by the borough mayor and secretary.

23.2 Each voter shall be entered on a single electoral roll.

Article 27
Removal, Entries and Additional Entries

27.1 The names of any citizens who have become disfranchised or who are deceased by polling day, as well as the names of any persons in respect of whom this is expressly provided for in this Code, shall be removed from the electoral rolls.

27.2 The Directorate General of Implementation of Penal Sanctions at the Ministry of Justice shall provide the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Administrative Services at the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works data about the persons serving custodial sentences for the automated removal of the said persons from the electoral rolls. The said information shall be provided 55 and 15 days in advance of polling day, respectively.

Article 31
Compiling of the Rolls

31.1 Upon elections of National Representatives, of President and Vice President of the Republic and of Members of the European Parliament for the Republic of Bulgaria, the heads of diplomatic missions and consular posts of the Republic of Bulgaria shall compile and sign rolls where the persons as referred to in Article 17 (5) herein shall be entered by State and place.

31.2 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall transmit the summed data from all States with the names, the Standard Public Registry Personal l Numbers and the permanent address in the Republic of Bulgaria of the persons entered on the rolls referred to in Paragraph (1) in the form of a structured electronic image to the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Administrative Services at the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works not later than 18 days in advance of polling day so that the said person could be removed from the electoral rolls for voting in the Republic of Bulgaria

Article 33
Disputing and Additional Entry

33.2 Any voter, who has not been entered on the roll under Article 31 (1) herein but has the right to vote, shall be added to the roll by the section election commission upon presentation of an identity document and of a declaration completed in a standard form to the effect that he or she satisfies the conditions to elect. Upon elections of President and Vice President of the Republic, of National Representatives and of Members of the European Parliament for the Republic of Bulgaria, the voter shall furthermore present a declaration completed in a standard form to the effect that he or she has not voted and will not vote elsewhere in the same elections. The said declaration shall be attached to the electoral roll and shall constitute an integral part thereof. All particulars of the voter according to the identity document there of shall be entered on the roll.

33.3 Any refusal by a section election commission abroad to admit to voting and to effect an additional entry of a voter on polling day shall be in writing, shall be served upon the person concerned and may be disputed before the Central Election Commission by electronic means. The Central Election Commission shall forthwith pronounce by a decision which shall be made public immediately on the Internet site of the Commission

Article 57
Commission’s Powers

The Central Election Commission shall:

57.9 Keep a public register of the voters; ensure to each voter searchability of the register by Standard Public Registry Personal Number (Personal Number);

NOTE: The response was obtained from Bulgarian EMB which clarifies that the EMB and its local sub-subsidiaries are not involved directly with the preparation of the voter registry: “Neither the Central Election Commission nor any other election commission carries out any specific steps for establishing, supplementing or updating electoral rolls or for correcting incompleteness or errors. Such steps are carried out by the municipal administrations. The updated data base is maintained by Directorate General “Civil Registration and Administrative Services” (DG CRAS) of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW), which also hosts the National Data Base “Population”. DG CRAS generates and maintains for every type of elections the data base with information about the persons having electoral rights in the respective type of elections. This is done on the basis of an agreement between the Central Election Commission and DG CRAS.”

General Directorate “Civil Registration and Administrative service” (GD “GRAO”) at the Ministry of Regional Development keeps a register of the population. The register is continuous and contains up-to-date data about the population at any given time. EMB, IC and REC, and other bodies make use of the data kept by GD “GRAO”. It is within the competence of the Directorate to make inspections about existence of electoral rights (active electoral right) for the respective type of election. CEC maintains a link to the website of GD “GRAO”, and each citizen can verify his electoral rights at any time for each type of election.