There has been no "voting tourism" on the Sunday local elections in Bulgaria, the deputy parliamentary speaker and MP of the ethnic Turkish party Yunal Liutfi said on Monday.
He said he asked for a report from the border check points with Turkey and the number of people who entered Bulgarian on the elections day were around the average number for the end of the week.
Interior Minister Rumen Petkov backed the statement, saying that around 8,000 people alone came to Bulgaria from Turkey on Sunday, and the total number of persons who entered the country is around 16,000. "The figures show there was no voting tourism, and making such statements is improper," Minister Petkov said.
At the same time TV reports showed people, who confessed in front of the cameras they came from Turkey to cast their ballot for the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms and they got paid their per diem to do so.
Eighty-nine busses with Bulgarian nationals living in Turkey were reported to have passed the border on the night before the elections and on the elections day.