Members with experience in falsifying election results have again found their way into sectional election commissions. An inspection by a BNT team found that some of those who became famous for forging and supplementing ballots during the last elections, were once again proposed by the parties to be included in the SECs.
Some of the most scandalous cases were from the Montana village of Gabrovnitsa and the Vratsa village of Malorad. They became visible from the video surveillance. One of the characters from these clips, it turns out, is both in prison and elected as the deputy chairman of a section in the upcoming elections.
Maya Asenova - who became known from the local elections as "the woman with the rings" - was elected as the chairman of the 64th section in Montana. They are visible on the video surveillance of the vote counting, which clearly shows how she boldly writes in the ballots.
The BNT team visited the village of Gabrovnitsa and personally searched for the members of the local election commission.
We are also trying to find Hristo Trendafilov, who became famous for the threats he made to the members of the Security Council in Gabrovnica. Now he has already been elected vice-chairman of the committee. However, according to our information, he is in prison in Vratsa for offenses that have nothing to do with the election process.
"BNT: How long has he been convicted?
- He should be going out now. Next week or when.
- And where is it?
- He is in Vratsa, in the precinct. I still couldn't understand what Christo is for you.
- We will look for him again, because he is the deputy chairman of the SEC in Gabrovnica.
- Yes.
- And you say he is in prison?
- And what prevents this?", said Hristo Trendafilov's wife.
From the response of the Appellate Prosecutor's Office, it is not clear what happens to the files created for the violations in the SIK Gabrovnica of the previous vote. The Regional Election Commission in Montana explained that they do not have data on sentences that have entered into force or pending proceedings, because there is no such requirement.
"According to the Electoral Code, the only requirement for a Bulgarian citizen to hold the position of a member of the SEC is Article 66 of the Electoral Code. That is he must speak Bulgarian and have no relatives with applicants or cohabiting persons. As you know, in Bulgaria the principle of innocence to prove the contrary applies, i.e. a person must have a valid sentence and serve it in order to be unable to hold the position, but such information and such a requirement is not laid down in the Election Code", commented Petko Petkov, spokesperson of RIC Montana.
SEC members are proposals of the parliamentary parties and should be responsible for them.
The parties draw up lists of the persons themselves, there is no requirement to have an application from the candidates themselves for members of the Central Election Commission, and it is technically possible, using the list from past elections, to propose the same persons", added Petko Petkov.
Another heroine from the video surveillance of the local elections is Monika Yordanova, chairperson of the section in Malorad at the time. First in "Around the world and in our country" we showed the scandalous video with adding preferences with the words "we are our people here".
A BNT check found that after the violations found in the fall, now completely new people have been included in this commission. The Central Electoral Commission reminded that on June 23 there are partial local elections in some municipalities, precisely because of the many errors of the SICs. That is why they sent a request to the parties.
"Municipal election commissions have asked the representatives of the parties and coalitions, during discussions, to the composition of the sectional election commissions not to propose those persons as members of the SEC, as a result of whose work the elections were declared invalid", < /strong>said Rositsa Mateva, deputy chairman and spokesperson of the CEC.
And in the Vidin neighborhood "New Road", there will be no sections this time. In the last elections, a member of the SIC was beaten up because he filmed a man voting several times. The eight sections, which until now were housed in the district, have been moved to other places in the city. The explanation from the Municipality is the repair of the sanitary units in the school, which will also be during the elections.