Bulgaria’s April elections: Dozens arrested in new police crackdowns against vote-buying
Dozens have been arrested in new police crackdowns against vote-buying, according to caretaker Interior Minister Emil Dechev, speaking on March 26 with just more than three weeks to go before Bulgaria’s April 19 early parliamentary elections.
Dechev said that the number of reports from the public about breaches of election law were between 500 and 600 per cent up compared with the same period before the October 2024 parliamentary elections.
“There are many signals, many special operations underway, from everywhere – from all 28 (Interior Ministry regional) directorates there is enormous activity,” Dechev said.
Before the October 2024 elections, there were 52 reports from the public about breaches of election law, and now the number was 383.
He said that the number of pre-trial proceedings initiated before the October 2024 elections was much lower than now. Before the October 2024 elections, there were 27 pre-trial proceedings, and now the number was 115.
Dechev said that the explanation for the increased activity by the Interior Ministry was simple.
“When the Bulgarian police sense the will at the top of the Ministry of Interior leadership, they know how to work professionally, successfully, energetically, courageously and legally, and that is why this difference is there,” he said.
The weeks leading up to the October 2024 elections saw 18 arrests, and by now, ahead of the April 2026 vote, there have been 51.
In a post on Facebook, Ivailo Mirchev and Bozhidar Bozhanov, co-leaders of the Yes Bulgaria party – part of We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition – said that the Interior Ministry was working actively against vote-buying, but the State Agency for National Security was inactive and the Prosecutor’s Office was spreading an “umbrella” over those behind vote-buying.
Mirchev said that a sense of impunity was behind the attempt by the mayor of Kurdzhali, who, together with other members and supporters of Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms-New Beginning, stormed the police station to release the head of the post office in the city, who was detained last night by the Interior Ministry for trading votes through food aid.
“Why does the mayor have this courage – because he knows that the prosecutor’s office is protecting him, he knows that the prosecutor’s office is not cooperating with the Ministry of Interior in the fight against vote buying, and he knows that there is someone to save him, because Delyan Peevski holds the prosecutor’s office,” Mirchev said.
(Photo: Interior Ministry press centre)
