The NGO Anti-Corruption Fund says that Bulgaria is facing a serious risk of electoral fraud at upcoming elections on 4 April, with irregularities found at one in every five polling stations.

The NGO analysed a total of 2,554 polling stations of a total of about 11,000 and estimated that around 5% of all votes cast could be subject to fraud.

However, this estimate only included polling stations deemed as particularly at risk of fraud and did not include all sections in which deviations from normal voter behaviour had been recorded.

Had the NGO taken these into consideration too, it would have predicted an additional 690,000 suspicious ballots, amounting to about 18.7% of all votes.

“The statistical models used with sufficient accuracy allow us to identify polling stations throughout the country with a consistently higher risk of illegally controlled voting,” the Anti-Corruption Fund report stated.

According to the latest polls, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party has the best chance of winning the parliamentary elections with a 3% to 5% lead over the Bulgarian Socialist Party. No party is likely to win an outright majority. /Krassen Nikolov, EURACTIV.bg)

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