site.btaPresident Radev: No Alert for Vote Buying Must Be Left Unanswered
President Rumen Radev said here on Wednesday at the beginning of a meeting he organized with representatives of the institutions responsible for the preparation of the upcoming elections that not a single tip-off about vote buying or attempts to control vote should be left unanswered.
Radev stated: "Every day we are flooded with information and alerts, including to the presidential institution, about actions that can be generally reduced to vote buying for the upcoming elections. Such actions discredit not only the very idea of democracy, but they delegitimize institutions before they are even elected." He warned that names and aliases infamous from the recent past have started making the rounds again.
The President expressed hope that the fight against vote buying would affect not just vote dealers but also the people who pay for their services. He said: "I expect actions to boost the Bulgarian people's trust in the electoral process. This requires convincing action from every institution that has a bearing on the electoral process. We must make sure that no person becomes a member of Parliament through buying or controlling the vote."
The meeting was attended by the caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov, who was also elected to coordinate the organizational and technical preparation of the election process, caretaker Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov, caretaker Minister of Interior Atanas Ilkov, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, Chair of the Central Election Commission Kamelia Neykova and Deputy Chair of the State Agency for National Security Georgi Georgiev.
Earlier in the day, the President said that the Wednesday meeting was prompted by multiple alerts of vote buying. "Our society has seen numerous alerts and publications about bought and corporate votes, even specific names have emerged. This is the reason for today's meeting with representatives of the institutions responsible for the upcoming elections," the President explained.
/NF/
Additional
news.modal.image.header
news.modal.image.text
news.modal.download.header
news.modal.download.text
news.modal.header
news.modal.text