site.btaInterior Minister: We Know Section Election Commissions with Dubious Voting Results

In an interview for bTV aired on Monday, caretaker Minister of the Interior Emil Dechev said that the section election commissions that are at risk are known, as the voting results they showed in previous elections were dubious. Dechev reported that the people who buy votes are not seasonal workers, as they are well-known and engage in illegal activities.

Dechev said that prevention is a powerful tool and added that "there is no harm in having a word with these people". He was adamant that the Ministry of Interior will do everything in its power to ensure fair elections.

When asked about reshuffles within the Ministry, Dechev said that he finds the actions of the Ministry of Interior’s leadership to be normal. He added: "This has happened in the past as well, such as under Kalin Stoyanov [interior minister between 2023 and 2024]."

In response to a question about whether he was carrying out reshuffles in the Ministry of Interior with the former president, Rumen Radev, Dechev denied these allegations and accused his opponents of spreading misinformation in the hopes that it would benefit them.

Commenting on a possible recent fire in the Petrohan lodge, where three bodies were found in early February, the Minister reported that he was unaware of this and that he will look into it immediately. He specified that the people who are working on the Petrohan-Okolchitsa case have been the same since the case was opened.

When asked on what grounds European prosecutor Teodora Georgieva has been assigned security, Dechev said that she felt threatened and had indicated this in a report to the Minister of Justice. He added: "There are several Bulgarian men who, based on far less evidence, have been receiving security for many years."