“Over the past two days, thousands of police officers were on the ground and worked tirelessly so that Bulgarian citizens could freely and peacefully exercise their right to vote. I thank them for the efforts they made.“ This was stated by the Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev after the end of the election day. He emphasized that the elections took place in a calm atmosphere, without the usual practices of vote buying and vote manipulation.
"We did not observe any serious attempts to buy votes, nor to manipulate the vote. There were problems rather in individual settlements - where partial local elections were also held. There were also detainees there. Overall, however, we must emphasize that the elections took place peacefully. It became clear that it is possible for us to organize elections in a more democratic manner and to limit practices that are well known to us,” he added.
“I cannot draw any parallel between the elections that were held when I was the acting Minister of the Interior and now”, said the Minister, recalling the situation in previous years, when the Ministry of the Interior was faced with numerous signals of violations of the political rights of citizens.
“Our vigilance continues until the final conclusion of the elections, in order to prevent vote manipulation practices in the one week remaining until the runoff”, was categorical Minister Demerdzhiev.
Over 17,000 employees were engaged in ensuring security in over 12,000 polling stations in the country, and the Gendarmerie forces were ready to react if necessary, said the acting Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Chief Commissioner Lyubomir Nikolov.
Over the past month, 192 specialized police operations have been conducted, including on election day. 242 reports of violations have been received and six pre-trial proceedings have been initiated, two of which were expedited. Despite the reports received, there is no evidence of mass and organized vote buying. Chief Commissioner Nikolov pointed out that these are his first elections as acting Chief Secretary. "But I can truly say that I am satisfied. We have received many reports on which we have taken action. Our interactive map shows that the most reports came from Northwestern Bulgaria and the Burgas region". He emphasized that the police's commitments continue after the end of election day - with the security of the regional election commissions and the safe transportation of election papers, materials and voting machines. He added that despite the calm situation, the Ministry of Interior staff will work motivatedly to ensure the peaceful and lawful conduct of the second round of the elections on November 1.