site.btaContinue the Change Co-leader Expects "Unprecedented Scope" of Vote Buying in June 9 Elections

Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov expects that vote buying will be of unprecedented scale in the June 9 elections. Petkov was speaking at a news briefing in Parliament Friday.

He said that GERB leader Boyko Borissov and Delyan Peevski, one of the two leaders of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, "have performed a clever marketing gimmick" by putting the name of Transport Minister Georgi Gvozdeikov at the helm of logistics for the upcoming elections "so they can carry out their plan for vote buying in perfect coordination: from the Interior Minister to the Interior Ministry Secretary General".

At its first weekly meeting on Thursday, the Minister of Transport and Communications was assigned to coordinate the administrative and logistical preparation of the elections, including the coordination with the Central Election Commission of the terms and procedure for the manufacture, delivery and safekeeping of the election stationery and materials, including for the safekeeping of the machine-voting technical devices. Many other ministers were assigned tasks in the preparation of the elections as well.

Borissov commented on Friday that "everybody will hail the decision to put caretaker Transport Minister Gvozdeikov at the lead of the election headquarters to make sure we have fair and democratic elections". 

Gvozdeikov was Transport and Communications Minister in the government of Nikolay Denkov. A ranking Continue the Change member, he was expelled from the party when he agreed to keep his office at the Transport Ministry in the newly appointed caretaker Cabinet of Dimitar Glavchev.

"My expectation is for unprecedented vote buying in these elections," said Petkov.

On June 9, Bulgarians will be voting for European Parliament and for national parliament.