site.btaDeputy Interior Minister Gounev: Politization at Interior Ministry Is Biggest Problem in Investigating Elections-Related Alerts

121 POLITICS - DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER - ELECTIONS - COMMENT

Deputy Interior Minister Gounev:
Politization at Interior Ministry Is Biggest
Problem in Investigating Elections-Related Alerts


Sofia, October 13 (BTA) - The politization at the Interior
Ministry is the biggest problem when investigating
elections-related alerts, Deputy Interior Minister Filip Gounev
said in reply to a question at Monday meeting of the Citizens'
Board for Free and Transparent Elections.

At the local level, the directors of the ministry's regional
directorates are not just appointed by the professional
leadership of the Interior Ministry: these are political
appointments that are coordinated with the political parties,
including with the participation of something like party
commissions in the election of the corresponding regional
directors, Gounev said. In his words, this is the first step of
politization which multiplies downwards.

According to Gounev, this is not a problem for the investigation
of conventional crime or a large part of organized crime, but
for the investigation of economic crimes related to rings of
companies, corruption, vote buying and selling, and conflicts of
interest, because in these cases the Interior Ministry employee
has to investigate the people who have appointed him or her.

According to Gounev, an analysis of the election results is
being conducted again so as to determine where the work has not
been done, and a result can be expected in the following weeks.