site.btaMinisterial Report Tells of 72,619 Addresses Where Six or More Voters Are Registered

Regional Development and Public Works Minister Andrey Tsekov submitted a report to Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov about addresses in Bulgaria where six or more people from the voters' lists for the upcoming local elections are registered. The information was provided by the Directorate-General of Civil Registration and Administrative Services and refers to persons with a permanent address and a present address.

According to the report, there are 72,619 addresses in Bulgaria where six or more adults named on the voters' lists are registered, and 1,697 addresses where at least 20 voters are registered.

The report suggests that the local authorities are responsible for the registration of such unusually large numbers of voters at the same address over the years. For example, a house in Vidin is "home" to 25 adults, one in Ruse "accommodates" 59 adults, and one in Varna "holds" 84 voters. There are even more striking examples: a house in Razlog with 142 adults registered to it, and 138 voters "living" at No. 2 Tundzha Street in Gorna Oryahovitsa, where there is no building at all, just an empty expanse of land.

A house in Montana provides "shelter" to 172 voters, and one in Stamboliiski has 652 adult "occupants". Yet another "overcrowded" house is reported in Plovdiv, with 194 voters registered to it. An apartment in Sofia's Suhata Reka neighbourhood provides "space" for 83 adult citizens, and one in the Lyulin housing estate "holds" 99 voters.

As many as 1,523 voters are registered in the village of Pletena, and 812 in the village of Osenovo.

Article 92, Paragraph 10 of the Civil Registration Act says: "The number of people who can register on permanent and/or present address at the address of one residence may not exceed two times the number of people who can habitually live in that place. In defining the total number of people, the registered owners, users, tenants and those living at the address on other legal grounds shall be taken into consideration. In case that only relatives of direct line, of indirect line up to 4th grade, including in-laws up to second grade, live in the residence, an up-to-threefold excess of the number of people who can habitually live in the home shall be allowed."

The Civil Registration Act does not entitle the minister of regional development and public works to check the circumstances of a civil registration. Such a check may be initiated by the mayor of the respective municipality upon a written alert, or by the regional governor.

Earlier this week, the regional development and public works minister alerted the prime minister about unusually large numbers of registrations in small settlements in the lead-up to the October 29 local elections. The minister's list names 343 small settlements, mainly villages where mayoralty mayors are to be elected, showing an unusual increase in present-address registrations and applications to vote at present address. The prime minister asked the regional governors to see to it that the tipoffs are investigated.