The Central Election Commission (CEC) says it will send extra guidance to regional election commissions on voting by people with disabilities. This follows reports that some polling stations are hard to reach or are not marked.

The reports also went to ombudsman Velislava Delcheva. She wrote to the CEC with recommendations on making it easier for people with disabilities to vote. The CEC replied that the regional commissions will get guidance, but that it has no data on problems with conditions at polling stations.

CEC spokeswoman Stoyanka Balova said the commission has not received a single report of a person with a disability being unable to enter a polling station on election day. She said municipalities are responsible for the premises, and the CEC has been assured that the ones chosen are accessible.

Pavel Savov, a member of the National Council for the Integration of People with Disabilities, has a mobility impairment and drives a car. He votes 5km from home, at School No. 8 in Musagenitsa, although he lives in Malinova Dolina and his polling station is in Studentski Grad. Savov says this school is the only place where a driver with a mobility impairment can stop and get out to vote.

He does not ask for a mobile polling station. In his view, these are meant for bedridden people, while people with disabilities who want to live normally insist on voting like everyone else.

There was also a report about the 26th Secondary School "Yordan Yovkov" in Sofia, which has been a polling station for years. The school has a disabled parking space and a separate polling station for people with disabilities in the first room, closest to the door. Voters reach it through the yard, not the main entrance, which causes confusion. There is no sign at the entrance to guide people with disabilities.

Principal Proletka Nikolova said the school has had no problems with access for people with disabilities so far. She said signs are not the school's job, and that information campaigns and guiding voters on election day are entirely a matter for the commissions.

Data on the number of mobile polling stations and voters with disabilities is due to be published.