June 27 (BTA) - Dimiter Dimitrov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission, told BTA that there had been no reports of voting machines being out of order. Voting has not been suspended or stopped due to voting machine malfunction, he said, commenting on media stories about glitches in machine voting caused by the hot weather.

Blagoevgrad Municipality and seven more settlements in Bulgaria are holding local by-elections with 100 per cent machine voting on Sunday.

Dimitrov quoted a call centre of voting machine supplier Ciela Norma AD, which services the equipment for the June 27 local by-elections and the July 11 early parliamentary elections, as saying that no machine had stopped working. The village of Surnitsa in the southern Pazardzhik Region reported heat-related problems but the machines were unaffected. The voting section in the village has two machines placed side by side. The clerks were too hot, so they opened all doors and windows and had fans brought in.

Dimitrov said voting in Blagoevgrad was "slack." RI/DD