Криминална хроника

On March 21, the last session of the Pazardzhik District Court was held on the appeal by which Atanas Vodev requested cassation of the mayoral elections. Next week the court will come up with a decision, announced the chairman of the panel Penka Yaneva.
The meeting was held in the presence of many residents of Velingrad and the municipality. The two expert reports assigned to the case were presented. Nikolay Doynov, a polygraph expert, reported that in addition to the 37 fake ballots found on the election day itself, 5 more were found. Lubomir Tsrunchev, expert-mathematician, presented in tabular form the results of the census of all used and unused ballots and envelopes for F. Beev. The expertise was given in writing, so it was not read in detail in the House. It became clear from the expert's testimony that all sacks of ballots were stored in a sealed and guarded by the SOT room in the municipality; representatives of the OA, OIC, political forces and stakeholders were present at the opening. No evidence of interventions was found on any of the sacks. In 4 sections were found bulletins of F. Beev of different color and larger size. In 16 sections, 1227 ballots were reported for it more than the envelopes found. More envelopes were found in 13 sections than the actual reported votes. No judicial review of the results can be carried out in 5 sections, as used and unused envelopes are collected together in violation of the law. 445 envelopes and 109 ballots were found in excess of the ones handed over to the sections, which presupposes their being brought in from the outside. In addition, unused envelopes were not returned from sections 3, 56 and 58. Section 58 said they destroyed them because they were torn. In section 56, the ballot paper bag was stolen, but then they found it. In section 3, they explained that they took the unused envelopes for personal use and for the school, the expert explained. There were also many glued envelopes, although by standard the envelope is dropped into the urn without sticking.
Lawyer Bozhikova asked the court to grant the appeal of At. Vodev. She recalled that in an undoubted way it was found that in 9 sections the elections were held with electoral lists that had no official force because they were not signed by a mayor or secretary; in 4 sections the lists were without a permanent address of the voters; in 6 sections amendments were made on the day of the elections; persons without specified personal data were allowed to vote, with passports instead of ID cards, not corresponding to the law according to their place of residence. The hand recount showed that there was no section in which no violations were not allowed in the reporting of votes, stressed Att's defender. Vodev. Violations were also found in the election process: agitation for F. Beev in a local newspaper on the day of reflection and broadcasts without a license by his radio in the days before the elections.The established violations compromise the elections as a whole and violate the law in a way that the result is worthless, summarized lawyer Bozhikova.
Attorney Att. Zhelezchev defended F. Beev, pointing out that the political force that raised him NS-BZNS had no representatives neither in the OIC, nor in the SIC, nor in the organization of election papers by the OA. If there are violations, they are not the fault of F. Beev, and At. Vodev. According to the lawyer, the violations are not substantial, but are because of the unfinished business of the people on the committees. The other defender of F. Beev Plamen Yalnuzov also pleaded that no violations were found, the number of which would exceed the difference in votes between the two mayoral candidates.
On behalf of the Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Toncheva was adamant that the evidence gathered and the expertise pointed to significant violations of the electoral process - both in the election campaign and on the day of the elections, and in the reporting of the results, and the OIC's decision was signed with a dissenting opinion by 9 members of the committee. The prosecutor stated that the complaint of At. Vodev is justified and the decision of OIC - Velingrad to declare Fidel Beev mayor of the municipality should be revoked.
The parties will submit their opinions in writing by Wednesday this week, and in the middle of the next the court will come to a decision.
Elena Baeva