Bulgaria's Files Commission to Examine Mayoral Candidates' Ties to Communist Secret Services

Evtim Kostadinov, Chair of Bulgaria's Files Commission, has vowed to provide the results of the checks of mayoral candidates before the October 23 elections. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Files Commission is checking whether mayoral candidates participating in the October 23 elections have been agents or collaborators of the former Communist State Security (DS).

The so called "Files Commission", which is in charge of investigating the past connection of public figures with the secret services of former communist regime before 1989, has vowed to come up with the results of the inspection before the mayoral race.

"The total number of candidates for mayoral office is 9888, of which 8143 are subject to such probes because the remaining ones were born after 1973, meaning that they are too young to have been collaborators of the totalitarian services", Evtim Kostadinov, Chair of the special panel told Trud daily Wednesday.

He specified that the Commission would do everything possible to make the results of the checks available at least one week before election day so that people can make an informed choice.

Kostadinov added that the panel also intended to examine the past of candidates for municipal councilors, which, however, was an uphill battle because there were 46 000-plus runners and the lists compiled by the municipal electoral commissions were often incomplete.

The Files Commission Chair said that the results of all checks of municipal councilors would most likely not be completed before October 23.

Kostadinov made it clear that two parties had filed demands for an anticipatory inspection of their candidates, center-right ruling party GERB and right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), which had facilitated the work of the Commission substantially, at the same time allowing the formations sufficient time to pull out candidates with ties to DS.

The anticipatory checks exposed a negligible number of candidates as agents or collaborators of the former State Security, Kostadinov noted.

In end-September, the Files Commission revealed the names of presidential candidates with ties to DS- Ventsislav Yosifov, former director of First Private Bank, former secret agent and alleged crime boss Alexei Petrov, and journalist Stefan Solakov.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!