The government allocated 18.5 million leva (9.458 mln euros) for the preparation and holding of municipal councilor and mayoral elections on October 28, the government information service said on Wednesday.

This amount is divided into 13.8 million leva (7.055 mln euros) for the first round and 4.7 million leva (2.403 mln euros) for the second round of voting, BTA reports. The money will be made available to the first-level spending units, which are the spenders of budget appropriations at central level. They have until December 15 to submit reports and transfer the unused money to the central government budget.

The allocation is to cover the expenses of the regional and municipal administrations; the purchase and production of election material; the financing and remuneration to central,
municipal and sectional electoral commissions; the costs of printing of electoral registers, of security provided by the Interior Ministry and the provision of voting places in the state-run schools by the Education Ministry.

Also, money has been allocated for the processing of the voting results and for a public information campaign.

For the previous local elections in 2003 the cabinet approved an amount of 11.9 million leva (6.084 mln euros). In 1999 the amount was 9.2 million leva (4.703 mln euros).