Commenting on the scandal with the newly discovered pile of unaccounted-for ballots at a Kostinbrod-based printing house, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev has emphasized that he has faith in the professionalism of investigative authorities.

Plevneliev, as cited by his press office, made clear that he expected the results of the probe of the prosecuting authority and the State Agency for National Security (DANS) within the shortest possible time.

"I expect an instantaneous reaction by the Central Electoral Commission so that the legality of the elections is guaranteed, including the adoption of urgent measures if necessary" he stated.

Plevneliev condemned the rush to offer comments in a bid to extract last-minute gains on the day of reflection, adding that the Central Electoral Commission, the prosecuting authority and DANS had to be given the opportunity to do their job.

Bulgaria's head of state also called on political parties and media outlets to respect the rules of democracy.

Late on May 10, a team of prosecutors and officers of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) stormed into a printing facility in the western town of Kostinbrod and seized a total of 350 000 ballots.

On Saturday, the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office confirmed that it had opened pre-trial proceedings for violation of secret ballot and manipulation of election results as defined in Art. 282 and Art. 169 of the Penal Code.

The SCPO informed that the inspection at the printing house of the Multiprint OOD company had uncovered a total of 350 000 ballots stored at the premises despite the fact that the firm had already fulfilled its contractual obligations to deliver the ballots to the local administrations by May 8.

The prosecuting authority assured that the extra ballots were stored under enhanced security measures.

The printing house is owned by 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.

The company was to print and deliver the ballots to the district administrations by May 8.

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

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

Bonchev insisted that no ballots had been printed after May 8, adding that the probe had uncovered a pile of flawed ballots.

The inspection into the matter continues.

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