Organisers of vote buying in the elections would be punished with up to three years imprisonment or with probation and a fine of 1 000 to 5 000 leva, according to amendments in the Penal Code.

Bulgaria’s Parliament approved the amendments on October 18 2007, mediapool.bg reported.

The amendments were approved by 131 votes in favour and 12 abstentions. None of the members of the Parliament (MP) voted against.

The MPs approved on second reading an ammendment which would see those who sell their votes to be punished with one year in prison or probation, mediapool.bg said. The proposal was approved by 99 votes in favour, 27 against and 14 abstentions.

Until now, the Penal Code envisioned imprisonment for vote-buying, but the amendments proclaimed criminal vote-selling for the first time.

The first version of the amendments, proposed by ultra-nationalist movement Ataka MP Pavel Shopov, envisioned up to two years in prison for vote-selling.