site.btaEleven Pre-trial Proceedings for Vote-buying Launched to Date - Interior Minister

118 POLITICS - ELECTIONS - VOTE-BUYING

Eleven Pre-trial Proceedings for Vote-buying
Launched to Date -
Interior Minister


Sofia, September 23 (BTA) - Eleven pre-trial proceedings for
vote-buying have been launched to date, caretaker Interior
Minister Yordan Bakalov told a news conference Tuesday. A total
of 160 warnings have been served to people about whom the
Interior Ministry has information that they are involved in such
activity. A total of 53 alerts for vote-buying have been
submitted by September 19, including 19 on phone 112, Bakalov
said.

An organized crime group in Yambol (Southern Bulgaria) has been
cracked and eight people have been charged. They were preparing
groups of people whose votes were to be offered to certain
parties in the forthcoming elections. In addition to payment,
the detainees also applied threats against the potential voters.


According to social scientist Dimiter Dimitrov, who is part of
an expert group assisting the Interior Ministry against voting
crimes, a special regimen should be established for the
high-risk polling stations in the country, at which
representatives of parties, supporters or observers should not
be allowed access to the ballot boxes themselves. There are such
stations mainly in the poor regions of the country, Dimitrov
said.

Social scientist Antonii Gulubov, in turn, said that between 14
and 16 per cent of all voters in Bulgaria are on the vote-buying
market. About 6-7 per cent of these people even admit that they
are involved in such activity. In Gulubov's words, the criminal
groups for vote-buying do not get involved with certain parties
but are solely interested in that who the highest bidder will
be./PK/BR