Sat, Jul 04 2009
Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev expressed discontent with the rumours that voters in small resort town of Sandanski, next to the Greek border in southwestern Bulgaria, were offered between 70 and 80 leva in exchange for their vote in the upcoming ad hoc elections for municipal councilors, scheduled for June 7 2008.
Stanishev talked to the media on June 1, before taking part in a round of the European rafting cup, held near Simitli in the waters of nearby Strouma river.
Stanishev called upon the people in Sandanski to take part in the elections and exercise their right to vote. "If they don't, then they would have little grounds to be unsatisfied with the local authorities," he was quoted as saying by Bulgarian National Television.
He also said that he had given strict instructions to Interior Minister Mihail Mikov ensure that the elections went without a hitch. Police presence is expected to be intense on the election day.
The October 28 election results in Sandanski were declared void by the Administrative Court in Blagoevgrad in December last year, due to numerous violations of election procedures, mainly because of the shortage of election ballots.
The elections gave the Roma minority party Evroroma 10 municipal councilors, and the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria party seven.
The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation and Bulgarian People's Agriculture Union each had six councilors. Neither of the ruling parties managed to win seats in the council. Ultra-nationalist Ataka party was also left out of the council.
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.
City halls have the power to decide the time frame of the ban on alcohol in stores, bars and restaurants