CRTA Encourages Citizens to Report Election Irregularities

CRTA

The Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA) urged citizens on Nov. 8 to approach the non-governmental organization if they noted irregularities in the voting procedure on Dec. 17.

“Giving or accepting bribe in exchange for a vote, which we usually refer to as ‘vote buying’, is a criminal offence prosecuted ex officio. A criminal report against a person believed to have committed the criminal offence can be filed to a public prosecution office, more precisely, the Prosecutor’s Office in the territory in which the criminal offence has been committed,” CRTA explained in a press release.

The NGO has also made clear that if a voter witnesses irregularities affecting him or her directly, including a violation of the secrecy of the ballot, parallel voter registration records, voter buying, voting without documents, the so-called “Bulgarian train”, i.e. casting pre-filled ballots, etc., they might report them not only to the police and prosecutors, but also to the CRTA election observation mission (at 063 591 585), which will “advise them as to how to act.”