Bulgarian police report 140 vote-buying operations, FBI helps probe bomb threats

Bulgarian police have carried out 140 operations against vote buying ahead of the Oct. 25 presidential election and opened two pre-trial proceedings over electoral trading, the Interior Ministry's acting chief secretary, Chief Commissioner Lyubomir Nikolov, said on Thursday. He said he had ordered preventive checks in all localities with a high concentration of people involved in vote buying, focusing on Roma neighborhoods and places that drew attention in previous elections.

Nikolov said emailed bomb threats against institutions were under investigation and that the FBI was also involved in the investigation. He expected to receive information "in the near future" that could lead to specific suspects. Police are also monitoring cyberspace together with the organized crime directorate GDBOP to prevent cyberattacks on election day and the day before. Suspects have been identified in the arson of Starlink equipment, he said, declining to give details.

Responding to criticism that police were too passive, Nikolov said: "We are not that active on TikTok, but we are active on the ground and we are acting." Former chief secretary Georgi Kandev, now running for vice president alongside Andrey Gyurov, had accused the authorities of inaction, writing on Facebook that 170 people had already been detained for electoral violations at the same stage before the April election.