Sun, Jul 05 2009
A free anti-corruption telephone line would start functioning in Bulgaria as a project of Transparency International.
Bulgarians would receive information and advice from members of the association, Darik Radio reported. The number to be used is 0800 11 224 and would function every week day.
Transparency International would also help people submit grievances but the association would not deal with anonymous aid requests.
Darik reported that Transparency International would also monitor the campaigning for the upcoming presidential elections. One of the main factors to be supervised was campaign funding and the level to which the process was transparent.
According to law, candidates should spend less than two million leva on their campaigns. In case the association finds violations it would take the issue to the Prosecution.
Ataka and Order Law and Justice parties stage symbolic blockades at Bulgaria’s borders with Turkey on eve of July 5 2009 parliamentary election, while reports record influx of would-be voters and, it is claimed, flights are being chartered from Turkey.
In a blow against a problem that has been plaguing Bulgaria’s elections, State Agency for National Security and Interior Ministry say several people in a ‘major criminal organisation’ have been arrested for vote-buying, on the eve of the July 5 vote.
Barometer Info survey on July 3 2009, just ahead of the eve of Bulgaria’s national parliamentary elections, gives GERB 27.05 per cent and Sergei Stanishev’s Coalition for Bulgaria 19.09 per cent.
The exact number of people sacked from duty out of the 600 who refused to go to work on Monday is undisclosed, although reports claim that as of June 3 at least four people were told they were surplus to requirements.
Open your mind and face the unknown: the 2009 general elections in Bulgaria.