Bulgaria Socialists' Leader Accuses Parties of Vote Buying Worth BGN 30 M

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)'s leader Mihail Mikov. Photo by BGNES

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP)'s leader Mihail Mikov has accused political parties of buying citizens' votes during the local elections held on Sunday.

In an interview for NOVA TV station, Mikov announced that according to his calculations political parties must have spent more than BGN 30 M in order to secure votes. According to Mikov, BSP “played politically in the dirty local elections.”

Bulgarian citizens elected their mayors and municipalities on October, 25, 2015, while also casting their vote at the referendum on electronic voting.

“Taking the power at any cost should not be the goal of every party,” said Mikov and gave as an example the mayor of the municipality of Devin, who refused to participate in the upcoming ballot because of threats.

The mayor of Devin racing for a second mandate, Tsvetalin Penkov, who has been supported by BSP, gave up his participation in the ballot because of alleged threats towards him and his family. In an official statement, however, Penkov announced that he withdraws because he didn’t receive  the high support he expected.

Mihail Mikov also commented on current political events. He stated that BSP will vote for the immunity waiver of the leader of nationalist Ataka party, Volen Siderov.

Siderov was recently involved in two scandals of hooliganism. One was for breaking two times into the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts (NATFA) building in Sofia (the second one ending with a fracas) and the latter for taking part in a night hassle with owners of a liquor store in the capital.

On the grenade attack against Alexei Petrov, Mikov doesn’t find political reasons. “I am not looking for any political reasons in the case with Alexei Petrov,” said Mikov and added that “during our government he was publicly known, while before that he had worked secretly but saying that he had owned State Agency for National Security is too much.”

Alexei Petrov, an ex-undercover agent for the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and formerly  agent of the Specialized Squad for Combating Terrorism who is alleged of having ties with the criminal underground, survived with no wounds a grenade launcher attack in a neighborhood in Sofia.

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