The Ministry of the Interior was not a bystander of the early parliamentary elections held.
This was stated before the BNR by the Minister of Internal Affairs Atanas Ilkov.
The organization of the overall security of the election process was serious. Preventive actions were carried out throughout the country – in the risk sections and areas. Speaking does not correspond to the results achieved by the Ministry of the Interior, he believes.
There are no warning protocols that are virtual, Ilkov stressed and explained that unlike the time of "another minister", when such protocols were written indiscriminately, now they are based on real documents, in which contain "information that a person will possibly participate in the buying and selling of votes".
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is working on an extended report on the elections. Ilkov expects a joint report to be drawn up by the Ministry of the Interior, the National Security Service and the Prosecutor's Office, which will provide a "comprehensive picture with the latest data, because a week after the elections, signals continued to come in".
Regarding the accusations that the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not name the parties that buy votes, Atanas Ilkov gave two arguments: the law does not allow it and when it is not proven that a party buys votes, there is no way to release such information .
"When the court considers that the person is guilty and convicts him, then we can say that he actually bought for a certain political power. Until then, any other information may be distorted and whoever discloses it may be held responsible."
There were no signals about amounts that exceed the information from the previous elections, commented Ilkov.
Cultural-mass events are secured with much fewer police officers. Regardless of the fact that the protest in front of the National Theater on November 7 was declared as such, the Ministry of Internal Affairs took measures for a better police presence. The necessary police resource was available, Atanas Ilkov is categorical.
"Attempts were made to accuse the Ministry of the Interior of a bad approach regarding the provision of such a mass event, declared as a cultural-mass manifestation. There was no indication of actions that would disturb public order. Regardless, we secured 60 employees as we usually do. There were about 200-250 protestors in front of the National Theater, they were chanting their stuff and at one point the director of the National Theater appeared, without any agreement, without any request that we secure him when he goes to these people. If it was coordinated, this incident would not have happened. In such a mass event, when it can be seen that there is tension, there is charge, every action that is not read leads to such ugly situations."
Rapid operative-investigative work has been assigned to identify the persons who committed "indecent actions", the district prosecutor's office has also self-reported, the interior minister pointed out. According to him, the materials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will most likely be provided for inclusion in the pre-trial proceedings. So far, no complaints have been received.