Early parliamentary elections are held in Bulgaria today. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time and will remain open until 8 p.m. A total of 13 parties, 9 coalitions and 21 initiative committees with independent candidates take part in the elections. After the Grand National Assembly, which adopted new constitution on October 2, 1991 Bulgarian voters participated eight times in parliamentary elections as the majority of them - five, were early. Since 2013 onwards these have been the third early elections. The total number of ballots that were printed and handed over to voter in the country is just over 7 million and abroad - just over 360,000. The election process will be monitored by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the  Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Central Election Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Parliament of Azerbaijan. Seven polling agencies will monitor the electoral process and will announce their exit polls after closing time.