Belitsa mayor Radoslav Revanski has been arrested, and residents of the municipality refused to vote on Sunday in protest. In Lyutovo, there was not a single ballot in the box by 4pm, members of the local polling station commission said.
Fewer people are voting in Sungurlare too, where mayor Dimitar Gavazov, an engineer, has been detained. On Friday the regional election commission in Burgas said it had no reports of pressure on voters there.
What happened before: RIK-Burgas: no reports of pressure before voting in Sungurlare, where the mayor is detained
In all 17 polling stations in Belitsa municipality, the ballot boxes are half empty. Lyutovo has 158 people on its voter list, and none of them has voted. The commission members have not voted either.
Asya Ortseva, who chairs the polling station commission in the village, confirmed the boycott to BNT: "There is a boycott, so that they release our mayor." She said no one had cast a ballot by 3pm.
Ibrahim Lyutov, a commission member, said the commission is waiting, and its members can vote at the end if they want to. He said everyone has the right to vote.
The situation is similar in Babyak and Kuzyovo. Babyak has around 500–600 voters. Teodor Maslyankiv, a commission member, said one resident has voted. The other votes are from commission members.
In Kuzyovo, one person from the voter list had voted by 4pm, along with three commission members. Commission chair Ibrahim Atipov has not voted and will not, in support of the boycott over the mayor.
Residents deny that anyone told them not to vote. They say the mayor's arrest offended them. A local woman told BNT: "He can't be behind bars while we go and vote." Another said people will vote if the mayor is released.
In the town of Belitsa the picture is slightly different, but some voters had trouble with the voting machines. One said he did not know what to press and found it hard to vote.