Ahead of the April 19 snap elections, Bulgarian police have acted on 576 reports of voter fraud, the Interior Ministry stated on Monday.

Of these 576 cases, 181 are in pre-trial proceedings started and 95 people have been arrested. Deputy Interior Minister Ivan Anchev said that 514 of the reports relate to vote-buying in favour of specific political parties or alliances, 15 concern illegal campaigning, three involve corporate voting, and one concerns threats of destruction of property, without disclosing which parties have been involved.

A Russian citizen was arrested on Saturday in the town of Stara Zagora who had been handing out 30 euros for votes for a particular party.

The Mayor of Ovcharovo village was also arrested on Saturday for bribing local voters; police there seized 3,600 euros in cash. Previously, on Friday, a former village mayor near Kardzhali was arrested for initiating voter fraud, with 10,000 euros in cash seized. Arrests have also taken place near Montana and Veliko Tarnovo.

According to Bulgaria’s current interim cabinet, the spike in cases is a result of the authorities taking a closer look at the vote-buying network.

Interim Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov said in a TV interview on Sunday: “The only way we’ll know if we’re winning [the battle with voting fraud] is when we see how active citizens are during election day.” He added: “If we see they’re voting in large numbers, that they’re calm, and that they know their vote will be properly counted and contribute to the whole process, then we’ll know we’ve won this battle.”

Elections due on April 19 follow the fall of the recent GERB-led coalition over internal conflicts and the biggest protest wave in the country since the 1990s.

They will be the ninth election in five years, prolonging Bulgaria’s political election cycle. However, rather than being a stand-off between GERB and its main opposition, “We Continue the Change/Democratic Bulgaria”, the new elections are set to see a strong debut from “Progressive Bulgaria”, the new vehicle of former President Rumen Radev, who resigned in January to run in the race for parliament.

In the previous snap elections in June and October 2024, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) observed “failing confidence in the electoral process” in Bulgaria.

According to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE), “no official voter education or get-out-the-vote campaigns were organised to provide balanced information about the electoral process, encourage participation and fight vote-buying”. Later, parties also clashed over widespread suspicions of voter fraud, benefiting “New Beginning”, the party of MP and oligarch Delyan Peevski.