site.btaUPDATED Yes, Bulgaria of CC-DB Coalition Sents to Authorities Another List of 163 Vote Buyers

Yes, Bulgaria, one of the partners in the Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria coalition said Monday it has sent to the authorities a list with the names of 163 vote buyers. The list was put together by BG Elves, an online community of cybersecurity experts that combats disinformation and corruption.

The first list with the names of 200 vote buyers was sent by Yes, Bulgaria to the authorities earlier in October. This and other alerts of vote buying prompted President Rumen Radev to hold a meeting with government officials, representatives of the election administration and the security services to discuss the preparation of the October 27 snap parliamentary elections.

Again, the new list has been sent to the Interior Ministry, the State Agency for National Security, the Prosecutor General and President Rumen Radev. "The list has 163 names of people for whom here is evidence that they have repeatedly engaged in vote buying in various elections. Each is pared with the party for which the votes are being bought. Among them are Interior Ministry officers and people with aliases such as Mitko the Guitarist, the Customs Officer, Vasko the Bahamas, Padre, the Acid, Gosho the Cop, etc.," the statement says.

The Yes, Bulgaria leader urges the competent institutions to open an immediate probe into the information and possibly start pre-trial proceedings against the vote buyers. "These are crimes against the political rights of people and the magnitude of this phenomenon threatens the normal functioning of the democratic process and the constitutional mainstays of the rule of law, which is a threat to national security," the statement goes.

Yes, Bulgaria expects the institutions to announce what measures have been taken and what results they have produced.