Two men aged 35 and 52 have been arrested in a specialized police operation against vote buying in Sofia. The operation is being carried out by officers of the Sofia Directorate of Internal Affairs together with the General Directorate of the “Gendarmerie“ ahead of the runoff for president and vice president.
So far, 16 addresses, 38 people and two cars have been checked. 27 protocols have been drawn up under the Ministry of Internal Affairs Act, announced the Director of the Internal Affairs Directorate, Chief Commissioner Nikolay Peltekov.
At one of the checked addresses, lists of names were found, against which sums were indicated, as well as brochures for a certain presidential candidate pair.
The Director of the Internal Affairs Directorate refused to disclose the specific sums and names of the candidates, as pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the case and procedural and investigative actions are pending. According to police data, the operation began after receiving operational information that the two detainees were preparing to buy votes for election day.
The Internal Affairs Directorate indicates that the operation is at its beginning and the checks will cover the entire territory of Sofia. According to Peltekov, such operations will be carried out daily until the elections.
„Such operations in the capital will be carried out daily until the elections, in order to prevent violations of the political rights of citizens,“ said the director of the SDVR.The police will not announce in advance the locations of the upcoming checks, so as not to hinder the operational work. It is stated that the two detainees have previous criminal records, but at the moment there is no publicly announced data on charges or convictions in the case of preparations for vote buying.