Bulgarian Mufti Found Guilty of Vote-Buying

Former regional mufti of Bulgaria's Smolyan has been found guilty of buying votes for the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms) during the 2009 elections for European and national parliament.

Hayredin Hatin received a suspended sentenced of 8 months in prison, with a three-year probation period, and a fine of BGN 10 000, announced the Smolyan Regional Court. The sentence can be appealed.

The former mufti of the southern Smolyan District at present is the chair of the Muslim board in the town of Zlatograd. He has been banned from the right to occupy public or state positions for the duration of the probationary period.

Hatin was found guilty of paying BGN 50 to two people from the village of Startsevo so that they would vote for candidates of the ethnic Turkish party DPS during the European Parliament Elections in June 2009 and the general parliamentary elections in July 2009.

He also offered the two people to convince 5 other ones to vote for DPS in exchange of a payment of BGN 30 each.

Vote-buying was a considerable problem for Bulgaria during the 2009 elections, in particular during the EP elections in June 2009, when the "controlled" vote estimated by sociologists at 360 000 votes, carried much weight because of the very low turnout.

The "controlled" vote did not impact that much the parliamentary elections a month later the general turnout was much higher and offset much of its effect. Only a few sentences for vote-buying have been issued in Bulgaria since for a number of reasons, including political, these crimes have been proven hard to prosecute.

The sentence of a DPS activist for vote-buying comes on the same day as a Bulgarian court acquitted the DPS party leader Ahmed Dogan of conflict of interest.

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