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If config.ini file is encoded with utf-8 with bom markers this code
import ConfigParser
config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
config.read("config.ini")
config.sections()
throws:
ConfigParser.MissingSectionHeaderError: File contains no section headers.
file: config.ini, line: 1
'\xef\xbb\xbf[section]\n'
ConfigParser should be able to read such files.

Use utf_8_sig charset and open your file using io.open() or codecs.open() to get unicode sections, options and values.
Example:
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from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
import io
# create an utf-8 .ini file with a BOM marker
with open('bla.ini', 'wb') as fp:
 fp.write(u'[section]\ncl\xe9=value'.encode('utf_8_sig'))
# read the .ini file
config = ConfigParser()
with io.open('bla.ini', 'r', encoding='utf_8_sig') as fp:
 config.readfp(fp)
# dump the config
for section in config.sections():
 print "[", repr(section), "]"
 for option in config.options(section):
 value = config.get(section, option)
 print "%r=%r" % (option, value)
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This is a sign of a broaded issue and should either be closed as invalid or superseeded by the main BOM issue.
Brett, I would close it.

Closing as the main BOM issue is addressed on #7651 and a solution to the OP's problem is given in msg97335.