The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office has opened pre-trial proceedings after an operation at a printing house based in Kostinbrod resulted in the seizure of 350 000 ballots.

According to a media statement of the prosecuting authority, the pre-trial proceedings concern violation of secret ballot and manipulation of election results as defined in Art. 282 and Art. 169 of the Penal Code.

The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office (SCPO), as cited by dnevnik.bg, informs that the proceedings were opened after an inspection of the Kostinbrod-based printing facility late on Friday and examinations of eyewitnesses.

The prosecuting authority also assures that the extra ballots are being stored under enhanced security.

"On the evening of May 10, a team of prosecutors and officers of Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) found a total of 350 000 ballots at the printing house despite the fact that the Multiprint OOD company had fulfilled its obligations under the contract with the Council of Ministers to deliver the ballots to the local administrations by May 8," according to the SCPO.

The media statement of the SCPO notes that the ballots discovered Friday at the warehouse in Kostinbrod exceed the amount specified in the public procurement contract with Multiprint.

The printing house is owned by Yordan Bonchev, municipal councilor in Kostinbrod from center-right party GERB.

Multiprint was awarded a public procurement contract worth around BGN 800 000 to print and deliver a total of 7.8 million ballots for the May 12 early elections.

Approached by journalists of private TV station TV7 to comment on the probe, Bonchev denied that the authorities had seized fake ballots.

He argued that DANS and the prosecuting authority had inspected the implementation of the public procurement contract.

Bonchev suggested that the inspection had found a stash of flawed ballots.

He specified that some 330 000 ballots for Triadista district in Sofia had had to be replaced last week due to a flaw.

The owner of the printing house was adamant that no ballots had been printed after May 8.

He rejected having been arrested or questioned.

Bulgarians go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Parliament.

According to reports of offnews.bg, the Interior Ministry has rejected reports about the raid on the printing house.

GERB also issued a statement denying the seizure of illegal ballots.

"We call on the competent bodies, including DANS, the prosecuting authority and the Central Electoral Commission, to respond immediately in order to stop speculations and political insinuations on the day of reflection. No members of our political parties have been arrested. Staging such a provocation on the day of silence before elections is a sign of weakness and abjection," said Sevdelina Arnaudova, Spokesperson of the election campaign headquarters of the center-right party.

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