site.btaBulgaria Local Elections and Referendum: 279 Alerts about Irregularities, Most Groundless

Bulgaria Local Elections and Referendum: 279 Alerts about Irregularities, Most Groundless

Sofia, October 25 (BTA) - A total of 279 alerts about irregularities were received by 5:30 p.m. local time at the Central Election Commission (CEC) in the local elections and national referendum on Sunday, CEC Spokesperson Kamelia Neikova said. Twelve alerts concerned vote buying.

Neikova said that most of the alerts about irregularities related to polling stations were groundless.

There was also an alert that Ataka nationalist party leader Volen Siderov tore up the referendum ballot when voting. The alert, as well as an alert that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov disclosed whom he voted for, will be considered by CEC already on Sunday. In the evening, CEC Spokesman Alexander Andreev told a news briefing that the Commission did not reach the two-thirds majority required to ascertain a violation of the secrecy of the ballot by Borissov.

The prosecuting magistracy launched 92 pre-trial proceedings for violations of citizens' political rights.

Three people received effective prison sentences, two of which were issued after court-endorsed plea bargain agreements with the prosecution. A total of 777 case files have been opened. Checks are underway in respect of all alerts about offences against citizens' political rights.

Earlier in the day, Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov demanded the waiver of the immunity of yet another mayoral candidate, thus bringing to ten the total number of runners in the elections with such demands.

About a dozen local residents in the Village of Detelina near Karnobat (Southwestern Bulgaria) formed a human chain, trying to block the access to the polling site of "voter tourists" arriving by cars from Straldja. The protestors were dispersed by police.

The same problem escalated tensions in Obzor near Nessebur (on the Black Sea), where the locals claimed that some 400 newcomers from Sliven, Yambol, Turgovishte and Shoumen were newly registered to vote according to a present address.

At a filling station in the Village of Gradets near Sliven (Southeastern Bulgaria), motorists were offered free fuel if they signed a list pledging to vote for a particular party. A 41-year-old man from Sliven, who gave the list to the filling station owner, has been put on the wanted list.

The single Internet service provider in Sofia's Fakulteta Quarter offered his customers three months' free Internet access if they agreed to vote for a particular party, TV7 reported. The service is worth some 45 leva for the period.