site.btaTransparency without Borders: Elections Passed under the Sign of Parties Trying to Corrupt Voters

Transparency without Borders: Elections Passed under the Sign of Parties Trying to Corrupt Voters


Sofia, October 16 (BTA) - The elections passed under the sad
sign of the attempt of parties to corrupt Bulgarian voters, the
Executive Director of the Transparency without Borders
Association, Kalin Slavov, said Thursday. He was speaking at a
BTA-hosted news conference presenting the report on the
observation of the October 5 parliamentary elections.

This is part of a spiral along which Bulgarian politicians have
been moving in recent years. Any political debate has receded
before the technology of vote buying and control, Slavov said.

The result is that the parties now are in a situation difficult
for the formation of political governance, he noted. It turned
out that bought votes cannot be a basis for an advantage which
may open the way to political power, Slavov commented and
appealed to politicians to realize that and return to political
debate.

The association has established an increased number of
vote-buying alerts - 2.5-fold compared to the previous elections
and reaching 8.17 per cent. The high share of controlled vote -
16 per cent of the alerts - has also been preserved.
Organisational violations have decreased, but corporate and
bought votes have decreased, Slavov noted.

The association has also established increased pressure by
representatives of local authorities. The attempts for
controlled or bought vote for a concrete candidate in a list are
a novelty. There was also pressure on the part of employers and
the observers noted another one - an alert for limiting the
right to vote as a company has declared the day an extraordinary
working day.

There were also vote-buying schemes through payment at stores
and a catering establishment, distribution of foods and even
winter work clothes in front of the polling stations. Another
new element is an attempt to buy votes on the principle of the
pyramid - one voter is promised a sum of money if he/she
provides the names of five more potential voters.

According to political scientist Ognyan Minchev, the problem is
that there are ongoing structural changes of the Bulgarian
political system as a result of what is happening after
controlled vote and vote-buying. For the first time there is an
entirely artificial structure - a party that is a corporate
construction, a quasi-political party that is Bulgaria without
Censorship, he said. In his opinion, an expansion of such
structures covering larger portions of political space can be
expected.

The observers also mentioned some problems in the work of the
institutions, including control and publicity in the work of the
Central Election Commission, ineffective training of polling
station commissions, contradictory practice of observer
registration and controversial judicial practice.

The association has several suggestions it will make when
Parliament begins work because, in their opinion, the National
Assembly should work on revisions to the Election Code. These
include regional tally centres, tally sheets according to
current address, the establishment of an "Abroad" multi-member
constituency, as well as criteria of political uninvolvement,
impartiality and professionalism at the registration of
observers, with one person having only one role in the election
process.

The observation was made with the cooperation of another 14 NGOs
across the country. Volunteers also observed the process in
cities in Great Britain, Germany, Italy and the United
States.