site.btaMRF – New Beginning Leader Claims Vote-Buying in Pazardzhik Was Staged by Continue the Change, Opposition Calls Claims “Crisis PR Stunt”

MRF–New Beginning leader Delyan Peevski Thursday accused Continue the Change of orchestrating a vote-buying incident in Pazardzhik during recent elections, while the opposition dismissed his claims as a “crisis PR stunt” aimed at diverting attention from national issues. 

MRF - New Beginning won the elections in Pazardzhik amid concerns of wide-spread vote-buying. In the incident mentioned by Peevski, a suspected vote buyer was detained in a citizens' arrest but police subsequently did not find evidence of wrong-doing. 

Peevski showed a photo of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria MP and former Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov shaking hands with a man he identified as “Muharem Muhata [Fly]” and claimed it proved Rashkov was behind citizen-led arrests of suspected vote buyers. “What did they do in Pazardzhik? They caught their own cars,” Peevski said, calling the incident a “fraud.”

Continue the Change leader Assen Vassilev argued the photos were intended to manipulate public opinion and divert it from the state budget debate. Rashkov said he did not know the man in the photo and clarified the handshake occurred “in front of a police car, not at the polling station.” Ivaylo Mirchev, co-chair of Yes, Bulgaria and MP from Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria, described Peevski as “a man with a fragile psyche” acting out of frustration after watching GERB leader Boyko Borissov undersign a motion for removal of Anti-Corruption Commission chief Anton Slavchev.