Kyustendil Province

The European route E-79 remained sealed off for hours on Monday as angry demonstrators voiced their anger at authorities' decision to hand out an MP seat to Aleksandar Metodiev from the DPS.

Metodiev, also known as "Bat Sali", will be among lawmakers representing the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) from the region of Kyustendil, a town in Bulgaria's south-west.

Residents of Bulgaria's city of Kyustendil will block the international road to Gyueshevo, the border checkpoint with Macedonia, at noon, Monday.

The blockade is in protest against the election of the controversial DPS lawmaker Aleksandar Metodiev also known as "Bat Sali" without enough votes cast in his favor.

Chief executives of the Bobov Dol thermal power plant and trade union representatives have reached agreement with Bulgaria's caretaker government on normalizing the work at the plant and the coal mining companies in the region.

Five coal mining companies in Bulgaria are directly affected by the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Water to stop one of the units of the Bobov Dol Thermal Power Plant, according to trade unionists.

Workers at the Bobov Dol Coal Mine (Vagledobiv Bobov Dol EOOD) staged a one-hour protest and threatened to take further steps to defend their interests.

Ognyan Zarev, who was in the management of the Bobov Dol mines, has been fired after a hidden-camera footage alleged controlled vote ahead of May's European Elections.

Bulgaria's National Ombudsman Konstantin Penchev has referred to the Labor Inspectorate over working conditions at the controversial Bobov Dol mine.

He said on the BNT he was appalled at the "disgraces [shown] as a background to allegations and hidden cameras [reporting] of ballot-buying and corporate voting".

Approximately 2 hours before the closure of the polling stations in Bulgaria’s European elections, the voter turnout was 27.42%.

At the same time during the 2009 EU elections, the turnout was 28.10%, the Bulgarian National Television reported.

A carthel agreement is in force among Bulgaria's polling agencies ahead of the European elections on Sunday, a prominent political scientist has warned.

Antoniy Galabov told the Bulgarian National Radio that it "functions through various polling agencies" and has dimensions different from [those of] sociology.

Bulgaria's Prosecuting Authority has started an investigation into claims of controlled vote in the Bobov Dol coal mines days ahead of the European elections.

The move was prompted by private channel NOVA TV's report which shows the mine's chief as reminding to workers the number of the ballot which they are to cast on Sunday.

A company in close relation with Hristo Kovachki, a controversial Bulgarian businessman, has sought a license to operate railway freight transportation.

Bulgaria's Transport Ministry is to dedice in a few months whether to grant a permit to the entity, according to officials who confirmed for the daily Trud that such request had been received at the Ministry.