The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday confirmed to BTA that two of the three Bulgarian nationals arrested and charged with spying for Russia in Britain have served as members of Bulgarian voting section commissions in London.
The three alleged spies have been named as Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Biser Dzhambazov, 41, and Katrin Ivanova, 31, of Harrow, north-west London.
In 2021, Ivanova chaired Section 2 at the Bulgarian Embassy in London and Dzhambazov chaired a voting section in the Ealing district of West London, under National Assembly Resolution No. 2325 of March 27, 2021. They were nominated by the Bulgarian community in London and by a section initiative committee in Ealing, the Ministry explained.
It said the two had previous experience of elections in 2017 and 2019.
Under the Election Code, where a party or a coalition has failed to propose election commission appointees, within 12 days before polling day the Central Election Commission (CEC) must appoints members of such commissions nominated by the heads of the relevant diplomatic missions or consular posts or by the foreign minister or a deputy minister empowered by that minister. Such nominations may be based on proposals by organizations of Bulgarian nationals in the respective country.
Earlier in the day, CEC Spokesperson Rositsa Mateva told BTA that even if the detained Bulgarian nationals were part of section election commissions, this "by no means can impact the election results because the commissions function as collegiate bodies".
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