In brief
During a Sunday briefing after the November 1 election, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev reported that over 500 complaints and ten arrests proved the police prevented vote‑buying from affecting the outcome. He highlighted the deployment of more than 10,000 officers at polling stations, while acknowledging the investigation still continues and could uncover more offenders. The statement comes amid concerns that future mayoral contests may prove harder to secure.
After the November 1, 2026 national election, Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev delivered a briefing at the Ministry of the Interior claiming that the result was not influenced by vote‑buying, citing the extensive police intervention during the day of voting. He said that the authorities had received more than 500 reports of suspicious activity and had taken action wherever they obtained information about organized electoral violations.
"We received more than 500 reports. Ten people have been arrested. The operation is still ongoing, and this number may increase," Demerdzhiev told reporters, adding that the “price of a vote ranges between EUR 40 and EUR 60.” The minister also highlighted that the police had moved quickly to confront suspected bribery attempts, which were “well known to the police” and “everything possible had been done to prevent them from using their familiar schemes again.”
More than 10,000 officers were assigned to guard polling stations, according to the Ministry’s statements. Acting Chief Secretary Lyubomir Nikolov emphasized that many officers were deployed to high‑risk stations identified in advance, and that their “professional and preventive work had thwarted attempts to distort the election result.” He also warned that coming mayoral elections could be more challenging, and that the police would continue to ensure safety “both for conventional and domestic crime.”
Nikolov described a tactical measure in which “voters who had most likely been expected to ‘forget the number they were supposed to vote for on their way to the ballot box, and it had been written on their palms’” were caught, and noted that an investigation was already underway into that incident.
During the briefing Demerdzhiev addressed concerns regarding engagement in the city of Kardzhali. He explained that the initial instruction had been for no voting to occur, but that approval had changed after a review of local conditions; the minister indicated that this change was “clearly unexpected” and had required additional oversight to secure the process.
While the Interior Ministry stated that the election was safeguarded, it added that the investigation continues, and more arrests could follow. The minister also pointed out that the police seized evidence and that “all possible action has been taken” to prevent repeated usage of bribery schemes, although he did not provide concrete evidence of successful apprehension beyond the ten arrests mentioned. The citations of the price and number of arrests remain the only quantitative markers shared by the Ministry at this time.
In light of these declarations, the present uncertainty lies in the continuation of the ongoing operation: whether additional evidence will surface, possibly rewriting the narrative of the impact of vote‑buying on the November 1 results. The police operation may still expand, and the magnitude of the influence of the bribery initiative—or lack thereof—remains unclear to observers and to the public until more detailed findings are released.
