The Ministry of the Interior has identified a number of people who are starting to organize vote buying. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov at a briefing after the cabinet meeting. During it, two regional governors were heard – of Burgas and Smolyan. One of them commented that in some settlements there is unprecedented pressure on citizens in connection with the elections.
„The regional governor of Smolyan informed us that in his district, in some of the settlements, there is unprecedented pressure on the ordinary Bulgarian citizen – on all lines. If someone went to the forestry, for example, to buy firewood, another went to use other similar services – all this is used for pressure. This is a disgraceful phenomenon, at least in my opinion”, Rashkov said and he added:
“So if it continues until election day – will it mean that this citizen who has been subjected to such pressure will be able to express his will and vote for the political party he sympathizes with – or will he vote for the one who is exerted inadmissible pressure.”
Problems of a different nature were discussed, not just the upcoming July 11th vote, he added. According to him, one of the main cases at the meeting of the official cabinet were the voting machines.
“9,600 were provided for the previous elections, now more are needed. Earlier this month, an order and an attempt were made to negotiate with Ciela Norma for the supply of an additional number of machines – 1500. But this agreement was not fully realized due to the unfavorable price that was offered, so 4 days later the negotiations with „Ciela Norma“ were suspended, and on 14.06. – terminated. We started discussing another option – with „Information Services“. It is a 99% state-owned company and in practice first the CEC decided to buy these machines, secondly – the government to consider assigning such a task to „Information Services“ so as to participate in the procedure for delivery of 1637 machines, which to be delivered for the election. The Council of Ministers made this decision, the funds will be transferred to the Central Election Commission, it to the Information Service and the provider will receive the agreed amount”, said Rashkov.
The machines will be loaded and delivered from the Netherlands, he added and added that they are expected to arrive in our country by the end of the week. The Deputy Prime Minister pointed out that many technical issues will be implemented these days.
„The machines will be located for storage and security where the machines that were used for the vote on April 4 are. We are discussing the possibilities of international cooperation to ensure easier transportation to our country in order to be able to provide more timely opportunities for their setup and readiness for use on election day, „said the Deputy Prime Minister.
