site.bta 75 Alerts about Electoral Irregularities Submitted to Interior Ministry

75 Alerts about Electoral Irregularities Submitted to Interior Ministry

Sofia, October 9 (BTA) - The Interior Ministry has received 75 alerts about electoral irregularities, of which fifteen are about vote buying, said Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova at a meeting in Parliament on Friday. The meeting was organized by the Patriotic Front to discuss measures to prevent vote buying and other electoral irregularities. Attending the meeting were Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov, State Agency for National Security (SANS) chief Dimiter Georgiev, and MPs from the Patriotic Front, GERB, the Reformist Bloc, BSP-Left Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

Fourteen pretrial proceedings have been launched and eight persons have been detained. The Interior Ministry deploys 1,000 staff to 360 events. Buchvarova recalled that a unit has been set up comprising representatives of the Interior Ministry, the prosecution service and SANS, and is headed by Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov.

Tsatsarov said that the prosecution authorities have taken steps to strip of immunity two candidates in the elections.

Patriotic Front floor leader Valeri Simeonov said that electoral violations pose a serious risk to democracy and taint the election outcome.