Police have launched special operations across Bulgaria two days before the runoff, the interior ministry said. They target election offences such as vote buying and controlled voting, as well as everyday crime.
Police took action today in Vidin, Kyustendil, Silistra, Ruse, Pernik, Sofia region and other places. In Shumen the operation was yesterday.
Regional interior ministry directorates lead the operations, together with the Gendarmerie, Special Operations and Counter-Terrorism Directorate and other state bodies. They are checking pawnshops, quick-loan offices, shops, bars, vehicles and people with criminal records. People who are thought likely to affect citizens' voting rights get a written warning under Article 65 of the Interior Ministry Act.
In Kyustendil, police checked 399 vehicles. They drew up 7 violation reports, 42 fines and 3 reports under the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act, and handed written warnings to 12 people. Three pre-trial cases were opened. Two are for selling trademarked goods at different sites without the owner's consent. The third is for trading cigarettes and alcohol in various packaging, which are excise goods. The prosecutor's office has been told.
In Vidin, 5 teams from the regional gendarmerie unit in Montana worked with officers from the Vidin district police department and the traffic police section. They covered the areas of the Archar and Bregovo police stations and the Novi Put district, with 7 temporary checkpoints. Police checked 273 vehicles and 346 people, 18 of them with criminal records.
Four people were detained. In a search of the home of a 45-year-old man from the village of Kudelin, police seized many coins and metal fragments with marks of cultural and historical items. The man is in custody, and the pre-trial case is under Article 278, paragraph 6 of the Criminal Code. In Novi Put police detained two more people: a 25-year-old with 75 vapes lacking a Bulgarian excise stamp, and a 33-year-old with a large number of tools and no papers showing where they came from. A case file has been opened on the first under Article 234 of the Criminal Code, and a preliminary check on the second is under way under Article 194.
In Vidin there is one pre-trial case and 6 preliminary checks. Police drew up one report under the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act, and 5 reports and 21 fines under the Road Traffic Act. They also issued 34 electronic fines and one order for a coercive administrative measure.
In Silistra, officers from the criminal, economic, security and traffic police took part, along with investigating officers, experts from the science and technology laboratory and the regional gendarmerie unit in Ruse. At checkpoints they checked 190 vehicles and 240 people, and 49 offences were punished with administrative penalties. Police also checked 40 sites where controlled voting could be organised, and handed out 19 written warnings.
In Ruse, police checked 24 high-risk places and addresses with information on possible election offences, 31 pawnshops and quick-loan firms, and 47 people with criminal records. One man passed two fake €100 banknotes. Police found two people on the national wanted list, and two cases of driving cars that were not properly registered.
In Shumen yesterday, police checked a site belonging to a 61-year-old man in the village of Studenitsa, with rooms and machines for processing, canning and drying meat. They do not meet the requirements for this work. About 1,080 kg of raw meat, dried sausages, sujuk, cured fillets and canned meat were sent for destruction at the town's animal waste plant.
Police also found about 320 litres of loose alcohol that smelled like rakia and varied in strength. The owner's 40-year-old son said the alcohol was his. A pre-trial case has been opened.
Across the region, officers also checked 32 active offenders with criminal records, 20 pawnshops and quick-loan firms, and 5 business owners over the risk of corporate voting. They found three wanted people and checked 212 vehicles and 220 people. Police drew up 25 reports and 65 fines under the Road Traffic Act.