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:
-------------------------------------
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)
-------------------------------------

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.