Bulgaria's Interior Ministry has confirmed its involvement in an overnight raid on a Kostinbrod-based printing house which uncovered some 350 000 illegal ballots.

After an initial rejection to comment on the matter, the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that its officials had taken part in the operation upon the request of the prosecuting authority.

"Upon request of acting Sofia City Prosecutor Roman Vasilev referred to Chief Secretary of the Interior Kalin Georgiev, officers of the Sofia District Police Directorate, the Regional Police Directorate in Kostinbrod, and the National Police Chief Directorate took part Friday in an inspection of the Sofia City Prosecutor's Office and the State Agency for National Security (DANS) at a printing house in Kostinbrod," the Interior Ministry informed.

"Responding to allegations of unwarranted police presence around the printing facility at the time when the ballots were being printed, we feel bound to specify that the Interior Ministry is under obligation to guarantee the security of the election premises, election materials, and the activity of the electoral commissions. The Interior Ministry is also responsible for ensuring the secure transportation of ballots to district administrations and the specially-designated storage sites," the press office of the Interior declared.

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.

Bulgarians go to the polls on May 12 to elect a new Parliament.

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