Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev said that the Ministry of Interior has managed to deal with vote buying during the two rounds of the presidential elections. He thanked the police for their work and pointed out that the vote was not flawed.
„We created a very good organization for the first and second rounds of the presidential elections“, Demerdzhiev said at a briefing to journalists. According to him, the actions taken have shown that the elections can take place without the usual problems and tension around the polling stations.
„We coped“This is how the Minister of Interior summarized his assessment of the work of the Ministry of Interior against vote buying. Demerdzhiev also stated that the police had taken the necessary actions to prevent the electoral process from being compromised.
Reports of actions by mayors before the runoff
The minister announced that in the last week before the second round, “strange activities“ by mayors had been noticed. He did not specify specific names, municipalities, reports or proceedings related to these actions.
Demerdzhiev stated that the people wanted justice and they will get it. He did not specify what follow-up actions would be taken regarding the aforementioned activity.
The vote was not influenced, the minister claims
According to Ivan Demerdzhiev, the result of the runoff was not influenced “to any extent“ by vote-buying practices. His statement was made after the end of election day, without providing specific data on the number of prevented violations, detained persons or initiated investigations.
Earlier, the Ministry of Interior reported that over 17,000 police officers were engaged to secure the elections, and there were over 12,000 polling stations in the country. Demerdzhiev described the organization around the two rounds as good and stated that the work of the police had limited attempts at vote trading.
Sources: news.bg, bgnes.bg