Bulgarian train

Bulgarian train is a method of vote-buying that includes a recurrent process of casting pre-filled ballots while simultaneously removing empty ballots from the polling stations. The process starts when political 'handlers' ('the locomotive') distribute pre-filled ballots in front of polling stations. The voters who are willing to sell their ballots take them secretly into the polling stations. Inside of the polling stations, the voters are given empty ballots in accordance with law, but instead of legally voting by filling out the legally obtained ballots and then casting them, they cast the illegally obtained pre-filled ballots that they secretly carried into the polling stations, thus keeping possession of the legally obtained empty ballots even after having voted. Then, they go back outside and hand the empty ballots to the handlers, who fill them in and give over to the next voters.^[7] Thus the ballots have been illegally transferred from one person to another in a process that resembles having all the passengers in a train be moved from the wagon they originally occupied to the next one, one "wagon" at a time.

Bulgaria#edit

The method was massively used in Bulgaria during the European Parliament election in June and the parliamentary election in July 2009. The voters willing to sell their vote were primarily from the Roma community. Analysts estimate that the number of people who sold or coerced their vote in this way ranges from 200,000 to 350,000 at each election. Consequently, the name of the method has become eponymous with Bulgaria.^[6]

North Macedonia#edit

The implementation of the method was reportedly prevented in Struga during the Macedonian parliamentary election in December 2016.^[8]

Serbia#edit

Bulgarian train was reported during the 2016 and^[3][9] 2020 parliamentary election,^[10][11] during the 2022 presidential and parliamentary election and during 2023 parliamentary and local election.^[12]

Bosnia and Herzegovina#edit

Bulgarian train was reported in Teslić during the Bosnian general election in October 2014, when the voting process was interrupted until the suspicious person was cleared from the polling station.^[13]

Hungary#edit

A variation of the Bulgarian train was reported in Hungary used by Fidesz primarily buying votes from the Roma community in the 2014 and 2018 elections.^[14]

The use of the term "Bulgarian train" sparked controversies in Bulgaria, where it is considered offensive and the same technique of vote-rigging is known as "Indian string"; the adjective "Indian" in this term refers to Indigenous peoples of the Americas, as opposed to a term reflecting the country of India, which would be индийска in Bulgarian).^[15] In a research paper on the vote-rigging in Bulgarian elections published in 2010, Bulgarian political scientist Georgi Manolov avoids the use of names associated with specific countries or ethnicities. He refers to the fraudulent techniques as 'vote trading' and the recurrent process of vote-rigging simply as 'train'.^[16]

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1. ^ N. Novalić. "Bugarski voz za mrtve birače: Trinaest načina krađe glasova". Klix.ba. 1 October 2016.
2. ^ "Фалсификувањето избори на Балканот - редовна практика". Deutsche Welle. 5 August 2016.
3. ^ a b "DS: Prvi put raskrinkan bugarski voz". B92. 24 April 2016.
4. ^ "Hrvatska: zemlja s više birača nego stanovnika". Deutsche Welle. 7 August 2016.
5. ^ "Was the “Bulgarian train” used to rig the elections? Bosnians Turn Election Fraud into Business Opportunity". Insajder. 27 April 2016.
6. ^ a b "Bosnians Name Vote-Buying Technique after Bulgaria". Novinite. 30 September 2010.
7. ^ S. Latal and Z. Jegdić. "Bosnians Turn Election Fraud into Business Opportunity". Balkan Insight. 13 November 2014.
8. ^ "Дури и малолетници вршеле притисок за гласање, а во Струга спречен обид за бугарски воз". Fokus. 11 December 2016.
9. ^ "Jerkov: Otkrivena izborna krađa zvana "bugarski voz"". Blic. 24 April 2014.
10. ^ "Prijavljene izborne nepravilnosti: Crni džipovi, "bugarski voz", optužbe za kupovinu glasova…". Insajder. 2020-06-21.
11. ^ "Crta: Prijavljen slučaj "bugarskog voza" u Zrenjaninu". Insajder. 2020-06-21.
12. ^ "VIDEO Uhvatili smo ih u krađi: Dupli listići na izbornom mestu". 3 April 2022.
13. ^ "U Tesliću registrovan "Bugarski voz"". BN Televizija. 12 October 2014.
14. ^ "A Grudging Vote for Fidesz in Hungary's Poorest Regions". Balkan Insight. 2022-04-01.
15. ^ Р. Йорданов, "Призрак от миналото и индиански нишки". Тема.
16. ^ Maonolov, Georgi L. (2010). "The "vote trading" phenomenon in Bulgaria". Economics and Organization. 7 (3). pp. 299-308.