site.btaUPDATED 30 Prosecutorial Case Files Opened against MP Candidates, Cabinet Urges Prosecutors to Act

Thirty prosecutorial case files have been opened against MP candidates for election-related offences, caretaker Interior Minister Emil Dechev said here Wednesday. He was speaking at a news conference in the Council of Ministers' headquarters, held jointly with Prime Minister Andrey Gurov and Justice Minister Andrey Yankulov. "It is the prosecution service's move now and they should decide whether these people should be charged and stripped of immunity," said Dechev. 

The Prime Minister said that "the battle for fair elections is not for one institution to fight, it is a team play". "The first step is made by citizens when they file an alert and refuse to be part of vicious schemes. The second step is made by the Interior Ministry which investigates, collects evidence and detains offenders. The third step is for the prosecutors. It is the decisive one, where a decision is made if justice will prevail." 

Justice Minister Yankulov said that the prosecution service "has questions to answer about the immunity of MP candidates". 

He suggested that the prosecution’s failure to take action regarding the immunities of parliamentary candidates and other individuals with immunity "might be due to concerns within the prosecution’s leadership about its own legitimacy, given that it is the Prosecutor General who is responsible for initiating such responses".

Yankulov has been one of the most vocal critics of acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, arguing that he has long overstayed the six-month tenure for holders of this office on an interim basis, as set out in the Judicial System Act. 

Sarafov and the vast majority of the prosecutors' community insist that the six-month rule was adopted after Sarafov became acting Prosecutor General and therefore does not apply to him.

On Wednesday, he said: "From my Day One at the Justice Ministry, I have been raising the question about the legitimacy of the prosecution service [leadership]. So far, my institutional actions for solving this problem are not met with the needed response in the Supreme Judicial Council and the Prosecutors Chamber," Yankulov said. 

Police chiefs under pressure

The Interior Minister also described what he called "a troubling case" in the Plovdiv Regional Directorate of the Interior, where he said police has achieved their most significant success to date in combatting vote buying - seizing EUR 90,000 which is the largest amount of money linked to vote-buying so far. In the very same week, the local police director was summoned and charged as a suspect. "This concerns us. We expect to work in cooperation with the prosecution service in order to achieve strong results in countering election-related crime,” the minister added.

He also pointed to another case involving the deputy director of the Pazardzhik police directorate, who was removed from office at first instance, with his case due to be reviewed on appeal on April 16.

According to Dechev, such developments are complicating the Interior Ministry’s work.

He noted that the Interior Ministry has shown significantly increased activity in recent weeks in countering crimes against citizens’ political rights, particularly those linked to the electoral process—activity several times higher than during the October 2024 elections.

He reported an increase by several fold in tipoffs of electoral crimes, pre-trial proceedings, arrests, and formal warnings, stressing that the Ministry is acting against all levels of organized vote-buying networks.

Final four days

Prime Minister Gurov made a passionate plea to people to "stand up against any attempts at substituting their vote" in the final four days before the elections on April 19. "In these last days, the State must show clearly on whose side it stands."

He added that in the past month many people submitted alerts and showed that they are not indifferent to the election process. "We are hearing you. The government has heard you and it taking action."

He said that the Interior Ministry is working round the clock and the officers on duty stayed on during the toughest moments, investigating and arresting offenders. "They have dismantled criminal networks which have undermined confidence in the election process for years."

He said further: "The government reacts, investigates and arrests people involved in vote trade but it is prosecutors who must press charges."

Gurov concluded that Bulgarian people and the executive power branch expect the law to be applied to the full extent. 

He warned that there is a risk "for the elections to be vitiated - not just in the street but in offices as well", adding that the Bulgarian society has grown sensitive to the lack of justice and it was "the sense of half-justice that has led to these snap elections".