site.btaInterior Ministry Has Received 89 Alerts of Alleged Vote Buying Regarding Oct. 27 Elections

Addressing a Wednesday meeting scheduled by President Rumen Radev over the October 27 snap parliamentary elections, caretaker Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov reported that a total of 89 alerts related to buying and selling votes have been received at his ministry, in comparison to the previous elections when the number of alerts was 85 for the same period of time.

At the President’s Administration in Sofia, Radev conferred with Ilkov, as well as with the caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth Rosen Karadimov, who is appointed by the Council of Ministers as the coordinator of the organizational and technical preparations of the elections, acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, representatives of the Central Election Commission and the State Agency for National Security. The head of State prompted the meeting over multiple alerts of vote buying before the elections.

Ilkov added that a total of 42 pre-trial proceedings have been initiated, compared to 40 for the same period before the previous elections. The Interior Ministry has issued a total of 336 warnings, compared to 262 for the same period before the previous elections, while the number of specialized police operations was 128 compared to 121 for the same period before the previous elections.

Ilkov assured Radev that the Interior Ministry takes immediate actions to inspect every alert. Commenting on names and nicknames of persons allegedly involved in vote-trading that have been made public on social media, the Interior Minister said that his ministry has already taken actions against some of them even before they were made public. Ilkov claims that the public announcement of those names has hampered the work of the police. Ilkov also stressed that an official report had been received on Tuesday regarding the names of the alleged vote-traders.

Atanas Ilkov said that the Interior Ministry is working to ensure fair and transparent parliamentary elections.