Suspicions that tens of thousands of votes were bought during Bulgaria’s October 27 snap general election have cast a shadow over the legitimacy of the vote. Opposition activists have called on Bulgarians to come out in mass protests unless the vote is cancelled. 

The country held its seventh general election since April 2021 on Sunday, which produced an even more fragmented parliament than previous votes. With MPs distributed among eight formations, putting together a stable coalition is seen as a virtually impossible task.

What makes things even more complicated is the suspicion that the fourth largest formation in the new parliament, Magnitsky-sanctioned Delyan Peevski’s DPS – New Beginning, achieved its result by buying a significant share of the 2.57mn ballots that were cast on October 27.

“We defined the exact number of bought votes on this election. One person with 2% rating, such as Delyan Peevski, took 150,000 votes – that is what he has until this moment,” Todor Petrov, coordinator of the independent You Count platform, said in an interview with public broadcaster BNR on October 28.

There were also claims before the election that two other parties — populist Gerb and far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane — were buying votes. 

Following the information about widespread controlled voting, the BOEC civil organisation called for protests and said it does not recognise the validity of election. The first protest is planned for the evening of October 29. 

BOEC has already alerted the national security agency, the police, the prosecution and all top politicians of its suspicions that the Central Election Commission (CIK) deliberately made it impossible to use machine voting in many sections. BOEC claimed that the CIK was acting upon Peevski’s orders. 

Fragmented parliament 

After the latest election, Bulgaria will have its most fragmented parliament since the start of its years-long political crisis as eight parties and formations have passed the 4% threshold, according to data released by the CIK based on 100% of votes counted.

Gerb is leading with 26.4% of all votes, followed by Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) with 14.2%. Third came Vazrazhdane with 13.4%, followed by Peevski’s formation with 11.5%. 

The pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) ranked fifth with 7.6%, closely followed by the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS) with 7.5%. The last two parties entering parliament are populist There Are Such People (ITN) with 6.8% and SWORD with 4.6%. Pro-Russian Greatness missed the 4% threshold by just 25 votes.

DPS – New Beginning is one of the two factions formed after the split of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) earlier this year. The other faction, APS, is led by the party’s chairman of honour Ahmed Dogan. 

Peevski, under US and UK sanctions for corruption, has become a synonym for forceful takeovers of businesses, control of the judiciary and unprecedented pressure against independent journalists, political opponents and civil organisations.

This occurs in the context of Bulgaria’s struggles to rein in corruption. Bulgaria has for years been criticised for not tackling top-level corruption. Even after the US sanctioned Peevski, the local prosecution said there was no evidence of any crimes committed by the politician.

Not representative 

Petrov argued that vote buying was partly responsible for the distribution of seats among such a large number of parties. 

“The results were not just distorted. We will see a highly fragmented parliament that will not represent the will of the Bulgarian citizens because of the bought and controlled vote,” Petrov said.

Prior to the vote, CC-DB’s Ivailo Mirchev said he had extensive information about nearly 400 dealers buying votes mainly for DPS – New Beginning, but also for Gerb and Vazrazhdane. That list was provided to the prosecution, but Mirchev said that so far the authorities have done little to investigate people on the list.

“The concerns expressed by CC-DB [Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria] at the beginning of the campaign turned out to be true. We watched an election that took place in the spirit of fear, pressure and vote buying,” Petrov commented.

Solid share of bought votes 

Tihomir Bezlov, chief expert of security programme at the Centre for the Study of the Democracy (CSD), also said that DPS – New Beginning has a solid share of bought votes in its result.

“When we talk about bought votes, we need to follow the results in the risky polling stations, in which it is believed that there is usually buying [of votes] — to see which parties will dominate there. I suspect that one party will dominate there,” Bezlov said in an interview with BNR on October 28.

“From what I saw tonight in the exit polls, the way voters are ethnically distributed, it seems to me that the so-called New Beginning has a solid bought vote. Judging by the fact that there is a very large concentration of Roma votes, there is a very large concentration of Roma votes there.” 

He added that the price of one vote has reached BGN100-150 (€51-76.7). However, Bezlov also said that many voters in regions where usually DPS is the leading party, have been misled by the name of Peevski’s formation, casting ballots for him but thinking they are voting for Dogan.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) expressed concerns that vote buying was significant.

“The delegation reiterates its concerns over persistent allegations of vote-buying and controlled voting. While the hotline and other measures implemented by the Ministry of the Interior to report such violations are welcome developments, the significant increase in alerts and notably higher turnout in certain sensitive areas demonstrate the urgent need to further address these issues, which by law are a crime,” PACE said in a statement.

Lack of trust 

The election campaign started in Bulgaria following years of political crisis and failed governments, resulting in a high level of apathy among the population. 

PACE commented that the persistently low turnout shows the deep lack of trust among voters in politicians.

“After this seventh round of elections held in three years, political leaders from all parties and coalitions should consider the reality of the disengagement of the Bulgarian people and tackle it. The country is going through a recurrent political crisis – not an institutional one – but that leads to the institutionalising of the political crisis. There is no functioning democracy without active voter participation,” Alfred Heer, head of the PACE delegation, said at the conclusion of a four-day election observation mission.

DPS takes advantage 

Peevski has already seized on the opportunity provided by his party’s strong performance in the election. 

He was quick to respond to a comment by Gerb’s leader Boyko Borissov that he will hold talks with all formations except Greatness. 

Borissov extended the invitation the evening after the vote, but so far only Peevski has responded positively. It is difficult to predict whether the two leaders will form an official coalition, although they have been working together informally for years.