There is one party that buys the most votes. It was one party, but it split into two. The general expectation is that you will not have a revolution in not buying votes. Tihomir Bezlov from the Center for the Study of Democracy commented on this in an interview with BNR.
"We see planned operations and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is trying to do more actions than the previous elections. The benefit is that, as there are more of them, some of the contingent will be more guarded and buy fewer votes. But the corporate vote is almost never affected, and it is bigger than the bought one," said Bezlov.
According to him, part of the problem is that the Ministry of the Interior does not work with intelligence or purposefully collected information, "usually some party or coalition sends a signal to the Ministry of the Interior and they have to check it.
And he recalled years ago, how there was a serious corporate vote in tetsov and mines and everyone knew, but nothing changed.
"Yes, in an enterprise there can be pressure to vote, how do you prove this?", Bezlov explained and is adamant that the corporate vote is more than bought.
He said there were convictions, but they were at low levels. And from which party they buy votes, it becomes clear in the courtroom, but that does not solve the problem.
"The problem is that you caught and you convicted, but did you catch equally from all parties? Now there is a discussion because this is the campaign with increased interest in vote buying, much more is bought and one party dominates. The reasons are that the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not work on this party – is there a political umbrella? And their rival party, they split, they say they don't work for you either", comments Tihomir Bezlov.
"What is certainly true that probably depending on the situation and the superiors comply with this dominant party. They take into account and avoid more severe measures, because then it is not clear who will come to the next elections and what the consequences will be for them if they are too active."