Political attacks on the Ministry of Internal Affairs continue. This time the outright falsehoods are being spread by a representative and co-chairman of a political association.
This is written in an official position of the Ministry of the Interior, on the occasion of today's speech by the deputy from "We continue the change - Democratic Bulgaria". gen. Atanas Atanasov.
Here is the position of the Ministry of Interior:
"We are surprised to learn that the Ministry of the Interior and in particular the minister are responsible for the large number of invalid ballots. Such a statement is either a gross ignorance of the legal regulations or a deliberate suggestion. Once again, we have to clarify that the commitments of the Ministry of Interior before and during the election process are strictly regulated. There is a permanently established practice for securing the electoral process, regardless of the type of vote.
Before all elections, one of the first actions is the creation of a headquarters that organizes, coordinates and controls all security measures, including the operational and overt counteraction of crimes against the political rights of citizens. This staff is headed not by the minister or a member of the political cabinet, but by the senior professional figure, such as the chief secretary. The baseless and baseless attacks that the ministry has not implemented a single operation to neutralize vote buying are categorically untrue.
The results of the efforts are unequivocal – the number of initiated pre-trial proceedings related to the local elections in 2023 has almost doubled compared to the vote in 2019. The report was presented precisely by the chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The widespread falsehoods are another attempt to disparage the work of the thousands of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who guarded the election process and put efforts into countering vote buying. Work that before, during and after the elections was not criticized by the People's Representative Atanas Atanasov".
We remind you that earlier on the sidelines of the parliament, the DSB leader announced to journalists that the Ministry of the Interior is the most important thing in the organization of an election. I want to tell you two facts.
August last year, Kalin Stoyanov changed 18-19 directors of ODMVR, without coordinating these actions with anyone. In the local elections, there were between 400,000 and 500,000 invalid votes and there was not a single operation implemented to neutralize vote buying. This shows that this minister is not trustworthy. In the end, the acting prime minister must hear the voice of all political forces, urged Gen. Atanas Atanasov.