site.btaOnly One Bulgarian Sentenced for Wrongdoing in Latest European Elections

117 POLITICS - ELECTIONS 2014 - CITIZENS BOARD - MEETING

Only One Bulgarian Sentenced
for Wrongdoing in Latest
European Elections


Sofia, September 15 (BTA) - With 535 alerts of wrongdoing issued
in connection with the latest European Parliament elections in
Bulgaria, the authorities instituted pretrial proceedings in
only 21 cases and sentenced just one person, and then only
conditionally, Nikolai Georgiev of the Supreme Cassation
Prosecution Office said on Monday.

Georgiev was speaking at the fourth meeting of the Citizens'
Board for Free and Transparent Elections. He explained what has
been done to facilitate alerts from members of the public about
possible irregularities in the upcoming October 5 general
elections and during the preceding campaign.

Concerning the alerts about the European Parliament elections,
held on May 25, Bulgarian prosecutors issued 10 decisions, but
eight of them were eventually dropped. This means that only two
prosecutorial decisions were carried through, one of them
leading to a settlement with the defence and the other resulting
in a conditional sentence, Georgiev said.

Vanya Stefanova, Deputy Chairwoman of the State Agency for
National Security (SANS), said that, as usual, a special team
will be working to ensure that the upcoming general elections
are transparent. The team has been put together by the
Prosecution of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Ministry of
Interior and SANS. Relevant guidelines have been provided to
local-level units, which are required to refer any alert to the
prosecuting magistracy, said Stefanova, who heads the team.

Asked about the voting sections for Bulgarian expatriates in
Turkey, which some politicians say are too many and therefore
present a breach of the rights of other voters, the Prosecution
said that it cannot watch the process and take preventive
action, unless it receives concrete alerts and evidence of
offence.

Meanwhile, the Central Election Commission said that the GRAO
civil registration agency provides information to citizens about
the place where each person is supposed to cast their ballot.
Such information is available through the GRAO website:
www.grao.bg/elections/ The website can also be used to file
applications for voting at one's current address and to register
certificates for voting in a place other than one's place of
residence. This requires identification using an electronic
signature.