Ex Interior Minister Examined by Sofia Police over Vote-Buying Signal

Former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov was questioned at the Sofia Police Directorate Sunday morning on a vote-buying tip-off.

Petkov, former Mayor of Pleven, is an activist of the ABV Movement (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival) of former two-term President Georgi Parvanov (2002 – 2012) in the campaign for the European elections.

He was summoned as a witness to a vote-buying case in the region of Pleven, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.

Asked to comment on the matter, Petkov told journalists that the case was classified and that he could not disclose any details.

Pre-trial proceedings have not been opened into the matter yet, according to dnevnik.bg.

Petkov appeared at the Sofia Police Directorate HQ at around 8 am, he underwent an examination, and then left the building through a side exit, thereby avoiding a crowd of journalists.

On Saturday, Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev announced in Varna that the authorities were working on vote-buying signals for the upcoming European Parliament elections on May 25.

He said that a team of police officers, prosecutors and officials of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) was working on the matter and assured that the Interior Ministry was sufficiently prepared to curb such practices on Election Day.