site.btaInterior Ministry Has Received 4,580 Alerts for Election Violations - Minister Buchvarova

Interior Ministry Has Received 4,580 Alerts for Election Violations - Minister Buchvarova

Sofia, November 4 (BTA) - The number of alerts for election violations has increased two-fold - they total 4,580 and this is a sign of an increased trust in the Interior Ministry, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova said in Parliament Wednesday.

Around 80 per cent of the alerts are for infringement on the political rights and all of them have been checked. "The Interior Ministry has direct evidence of cases of vote buying and selling and I hope that there will be a result soon," Buchvarova underscored. The Interior Ministry employees have written 1,702 warning protocols related to the election process and have been present at all voting sections with a risk of vote buying. According to Buchvarova, the problem of vote buying stems from the practice of political parties.

A total of 13,155 Interior Ministry employees took part in the protection of the local elections, she went on to say. Since early August the Interior Ministry had an organization for preventing vote buying. Based on the analysis of the vote buying schemes, it is clear that this process is made a lot earlier, Buchvarova noted. Around 1,000 police officers guarded the parties' political events, she added.

Speaking in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev called for a wide debate on amending the Election Code and introducing e-voting. He said he has positive attitude towards machine and remote electronic voting. However, there should be order so as to prevent any abuses of these new voting methods, he added. While difficult, it is possible to organize try-out electronic voting at the next elections, and machine voting can be introduced in a larger number of voting sections, Donchev said.