Once again we observed in Ihtiman election section 30 - in the school "Kyril and Methodius". This is a place where we traditionally observe voter turnout, and there it went to 50%, which is well below the general voter turnout, as the votes were evenly distributed between GERB and DPS. The Roma voted en masse for GERB and DPS. And this is a difference from previous elections in which this was not the case. The statistics are available on the website of the Central Election Commission. This is what he announced to Lili Marinkova in the "FACTS" studio. and the show “Conversation“ Tsvetelina Peneva, member of the Public Council at the CEC.
“The more important thing is something else. Our feeling - as observers, was that the police were not present in these elections in the Roma neighborhoods. In the previous elections, apart from the local police departments, there were also gendarmerie buses. We have not seen such buses anywhere. The Home Secretary had apparently ordered that there should be no apparent police presence. For the first time, we also felt unsafe during our observation, even though we and our observers were not directly threatened. Still, we made choices “2 in 1“ and we attracted many international organizations. We are waiting for their reports, but they shared that what they see in the Roma communities does not correspond in any way to what can be seen in other polling stations“, Peneva added.
“The CEC does not compile or check the voter lists, and this is an obligation that is assigned to the MRRB through GRAO. They are the ones who make the lists. Measures should be taken to update the lists”, the guest also said.
See more of the conversation in the VIDEO.