2,5 TIMES MORE VOTE-BUYING IN 5TH OF OCTOBER PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Two and a half times more vote-buying in comparison to the previous elections – this is the finding of the association “Transparency without Borders” announced on 16th of October, upon presenting their report on the observations of the 2014 parliamentary elections in Bulgaria. The report shows that vote buying was 8% and the controlled vote was 15% of all votes.

The executive director of “Transparency without Borders”, Kalin Slavov, said that the elections passed under the sign of attempts to corrupt voters and the electoral process.

According to the report, this year there was pressure by representatives of the local authorities as well as the already known practice of employers exercising pressure on workers to vote for a specific party. The so called controlled voting was also observed abroad. Representatives of “Transparency without Borders” identified that transport was organized to take voters to the polling stations even in Manheim, Germany and marks were found on ballot papers.

Ognyan Minchev, the chairman of the Management Board of “Transparency without Borders” concluded that bought votes and controlled votes resulted in structural changes in the Bulgarian political system and this was not an innocent process.

“Transparency without Borders” will make a number of proposals for improvements in the electoral process, including setting up regional centres for vote-counting and establishing an electoral district “Abroad”.