Cost of presidential election to exceed €12 million

The upcoming presidential election should cost more than €12.7 million, with just under €11.2 million coming from the Interior Ministry's budget and just under €1.5 million from the budget of the Statistics Office. This stems from a draft schedule approved by the Cabinet at its regular session on Wednesday. This amount of money should also include expenditures related to the second round of the presidential election, if the president is not elected in the first round. The money from the Interior Ministry's budget will mainly be used to pay for the work of the electoral committees, to print and distribute ballot papers and information materials, to equip polling stations and to maintain public order on Election Day. The Statistics Office's money will be used to process the election results. The first round of the presidential election will be held on March 16, with a possible second round slated for March 30.