Instead of perfecting and improving the election rules and procedures for holding elections, they seem to be being held in increasingly poor quality. This was said by Prof. Veselin Vuchkov – criminal law lecturer and former Minister of Interior in the program – Bulgaria, Europe and the World in Focus“ on Radio FOCUS.
"Since a huge volume of the citizens' vote has been controlled, at least in the last few parliamentary elections, certainly the name and especially the political will, as well as the knowledge of a new Minister of Interior in a service cabinet is of decisive importance for the outcome of the parliamentary battle, as a pre-election situation. At least that's how it is," he commented.
According to him, one cannot think about reforming and optimizing the Ministry of the Interior in a pre-election period by a caretaker cabinet. This is the work of a regular parliamentary government, of course, which rests and governs on the basis of promises it has made to the citizens.
"Unfortunately, the word "reform" is too forbidden and forgotten in the Ministry of the Interior, but in a pre-election period, when a caretaker cabinet and a caretaker Minister of the Interior are in charge, they must limit the phenomenon of "vote buying" and "controlled voting". This is the most important thing, nothing more than that", emphasized Prof. Vuchkov.
"The role of the permanent Central Election Commission, the Municipal Election Commissions, the parties themselves, which appoint their representatives to the Section Election Commissions, is also exceptional, but the Bulgarian police also bears a huge responsibility, and not only on election day itself, with something that we usually observe in the media, with the so-called security activities", explained the guest.
In his words, a reshuffle should be made at the level of regional directors of the Ministry of the Interior. "Unfortunately, especially with the low voter turnout demonstrated in recent years, instead of perfecting and improving the election rules and procedures for holding elections, they seem to be held with increasingly poor quality. So I strongly hope, at least after the protests a month and a half ago, and perhaps also in view of a new political project that is coming, because there is no point in fooling ourselves, we are in a new political reality, that there will be at least a higher voter turnout. If it rises to 60, God willing, to 70-75%, be sure that the controlled vote will not have such a decisive importance for the political results", explained Prof. Vuchkov.
He added that he is a supporter of the thesis of having tenured positions, because the Ministry of Internal Affairs is full of temporary people. "This also applies, by the way, to the judicial system, the prosecutor's office mostly, but also to the court, as administrative leaders I mean. But really, the last one or two weeks since taking office as Minister of the Interior, the assumption of office by another political figure literally a few days before the start of the election campaign, it seems a bit illogical to me to change leaders, such as Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior and Deputy Director of the General Directorate of the "National Police".
Source: www.focus-news.net