The presidential and local elections in Bulgaria 2011 will be held on one and the same date, the Parliament has decided with the new amendments to the election code.

Both elections will take place on a Sunday in October 2011.

The MPs further decided to keep the permanent residency requirement in the Election Code – i.e. the mandate that the voter has a 10-month residency at a certain place in order to be allowed to participate in local elections.

The permanent residency issue has been much debated, as MPs from different Parliamentary groups have expressed their concern that the so called "election tourism" might once again take place in the country – which means large groups of voters registering "on paper" in a particular municipality just in order to vote there.