Elections

Turkey's parliament has approved the first two items of an 18-article constitutional amendment package to shift the current parliamentary system to an executive presidency by respective votes of 343 and 347 amid serious opposition criticism over government MPs' violations of the requirement to vote secretly. 

Parliament voted in favor of launching debates on a constitutional amendment package for a comprehensive change in Turkey's governance system to create an executive presidency with the votes of 338 out of 550 deputies, eight more than required. 

A march under the slogan Stop the Destruction of Poland was organised on the day when people commemorate the 35th anniversary of the introduction of martial law by the communist regime in 1981, reported BNT.

The demonstration is organised by the Committee for the protection of democracy created in reaction to the policy of the governing Law and Justice Party.

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy PM and FM Ivica Dacic met on Monday with Saber Chowdhury, president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world's oldest and largest parliamentary organisation.

Two hours before polls close in Bulgaria's presidential election, a number of media outlets have been using their profiles on social media to publish interim "exit poll" data.

Dnevnik.bg, Mediapool.bg, mass-circulation daily 24 Chasa ("24 часа")'s websites and others have been resorting to Facebook and Twitter to publish interim data of the election.

More eligible voters have cast ballots in Bulgaria's presidential runoff vote as of 13:00 on Sunday, officials say.

Activity was 27.2%, or more than 1.847 million people, as of that hour, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) data.

As many as 325 polling stations have been opened across the world for the need of the Bulgarian diaspora, election authorities say on Sunday, as Bulgarians are voting for President.

Parliament must review the questions posed by the referendum due to high voter turnout.

The referendum which took place on Sunday is not compulsory but will be submitted to parliament, announced the Central Election Commission.

The option "I do not support anyone" will be available in the ballot for the run-off of the presidential elections on Sunday but will not, in fact, influence the outcome.

Tsetska Tsacheva (GERB) and Rumen Radev (BSP) will race in the run-off.

From its beginnings, Democracy has opened the way for people with overweening ambition, who employ lies, division and bigotry to achieve their goals. From ancient Athens to modern Europe, we have often seen leaders who challenged the endurance of the political system.