site.btaUPDATED PM: Main Priority for Government is Ensuring Transparent Elections

Caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov stated on Friday that the main priority of the government will be ensuring transparent elections, which includes horizontal policies in several sectors. Gurov was speaking during a parliamentary sitting in which he answered an oral question by the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms parliamentary group on how the caretaker cabinet will ensure that the administration and law enforcement institutions are not used for political influence in the upcoming elections and what steps the cabinet will take to prevent vote buying.

The PM said that the government has fired people who have shown that they cannot ensure fair and transparent elections. The Prime Minister added that Interior Minister Emil Dechev have said clearly what policies will be followed and what personnel changes will ensure this.

According to Gurov, funding will be released to all municipalities that have submitted their applications on time, have fulfilled the documentary requirements and are expecting this money for advance, interim and final payments.

He stressed that work will be done to ensure transparency of actions and reduce the opportunities for exerting pressure on Bulgarian citizens.

He assured the MPs that under the programmes for vulnerable groups for the energy poor, firewood and other products will be provided immediately to all municipalities in "an absolutely transparent manner, ensuring equal treatment of all Bulgarian citizens".

He announced that a coordination unit has been established in the Council of Ministers, which monitors the election-related timeline of the Central Election Commission, controls and coordinates the work of the regional administrations, and noted that it is important for the cabinet that the citizens' votes are correctly counted.

Gurov also informed that the government has held several meetings with the Central Election Commission regarding issues such as identically designed polling screens to ensure vote security and prevent ballots from being brought in from outside.

Speaking to the MPs during the same session, the Interior Minister said that "we need to be sure about the people who work on the field so as to prevent another annulment of the election results". "The leaders of the regional directorates of the Interior have a huge responsibility to ensure fair, transparent and democratic elections," he added.

"My team, myself and Prime Minister Gurov don't want to see scenes like the ones in the last parliamentary elections or the local by-elections in Pazardzhik. We don't want to see another Constitutional Court decision that declared part of the results of the October 2024 elections null and void," the Interior Minister said.

He said that he can hardly be held responsible for what is happening at the Ministry if he has no information about how the staff works.