A report by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe officially confirmed that there was police harassment during the three campaigns for parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2021. The movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) has been alerting to the cases of harassment for more than 8 months and now its warning has been corroborated by the OSCE, which sent observers to Bulgaria for the elections held on November 14 last year.
This was announced by the deputy chairman of the MRF Stanislav Anastasov during the parliamentary control procedure on Friday when the interior minister Boyko Rashkov was responding to questions from MRF MPs on certain cases of dubious police searches, alleged harassment, and police misconduct. The Movement has so far addressed more than 120 questions to Rashkov.
Anastassov released some details from the report.
It reveals that there has been long-lasting discrimination against the Roma people. "Turnout among Roma voters remained very low, due to various issues, such as electronic voting, insufficient education to vote in elections, lack of candidates, and, mind you, police operations that targeted Roma communities", said Anastassov while reading excerpts from the document in the plenary hall of the National Assembly.
The MRF member of parliament also said that regarding pressure and harassment during the elections, the report states that 9032 so-called "warning protocols" were issued to civilians whom the Ministry of Interior considered to be potential offenders, forcing them to sign the protocols. While some people claimed that those operations were successful in preventing vote-buying, it was clear that the police activity was aimed at harassing political supporters, mayors and candidates, Anastassov said.
The absence of formal criteria for issuing such “warning protocols” and the fact that copies were not delivered to the signatories, as well as the apparent evidence of the brutal methods used by some police officers, raised serious suspicion of abuse of power and the right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, the report was quoted as saying by the MRF deputy chairman.
He addressed Rashkov himself with the statement that "this is harassment, because you are depriving people of their right to be perceived as innocent until proven otherwise - a right that is guaranteed by the rule of law and the Constitution”.
The MP said that regardless of how many times the minister had pleaded no knowledge of the warning protocols’ power, it was clearly shown in the OSCE report that they could be abused.
Furthermore, to avoid discriminatory practices and to guarantee the right of innocence until proven otherwise, the Ministry of the Interior should have circulated these criteria, as well as the methodology and grounds on which these protocols are issued. Copies of the issued protocols must have been handed over to the signatories. The OSCE mission pointed out that they warned you back then - during the elections, when they met with you, Anastassov said.
To the warning: "Buying or selling votes is a crime and is punishable by law" we must now add "abusing power during elections". It is also a crime, but there is a separate subsection in the OSCE report dedicated to it, Anastassov said.
Another MRF member of parliament - Sezgin Mehmed, also quoted the OSCE report as saying that it paid special interest in the police repression against mayors of municipalities and of mayoralties. Though only for some of the political parties, the MP said.
In the municipalities of Madzharovo and Stambolovo, as well as other places, all MRF mayors were summoned to the regional police departments and forced to sign warning protocols.
