Three days before the European Elections the main topic under discussion in Bulgaria is once again vote buying. An eccentric type of vote buying was revealed. On Wednesday listeners of Focus – Pazardzhik Radio said that in the villages of Varvara and Semchinovo in the southern municipality of Septemvri hens were given as a gift as part of the election campaigning so that the residents vote for the candidates of a given political force. However, it is not clear which party opted for the non-standard way of winning votes. The residents of the village of Varvara did not deny the intention to hold such a campaign, but the village mayor Georgi Penev banned the attempt, which he described as vote buying. Residents of the village say the traditional market of votes was brisk more than ever. A vote costs between BGN 50 and BGN 100, depending on the deal.
However, the mayor of the village of Semchinovo Dimitar Dzhamov did not deny that hens were given as presents in the village and he himself was the initiator. Dzhamov said hens did not have anything to do with the elections and described his actions as charity. He says that a friend of his closed down his farm and since the hens had a good price, he decided to buy them up and make the poor residents of the village happy. In this way 400 families from the village of Semchinovo received three hens each as a gift from their mayor.
Representatives of several political parties commented vote buying.
Vote buying is an extremely ugly phenomenon. In contemporary Bulgarian politics, unfortunately, many citizens are prone to do it, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said during his visit to the northwestern city of Vidin.
He added that in the recent months the government adopted serious legislative amendments that restricted the phenomenon. He says that this is not enough and it is important that all efforts unite.
