Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov said elections “are not for sale” as authorities stepped up efforts to curb vote buying and manipulation ahead of a parliamentary vote on April 19.

Speaking to Politico in an interview published on April 13, Gyurov said officials were taking a tougher stance against electoral abuses as the EU member state prepares for its eighth parliamentary election in five years.

Authorities have detained more than 200 people in recent weeks in a nationwide crackdown on vote buying. Gyurov said some local officials had misled voters by suggesting that state social benefits such as heating subsidies and hot meal programmes were linked to specific political parties.

The election follows mass protests in December over a botched budget proposal and allegations of entrenched corruption that brought down a coalition led by the centre-right GERB party of former prime minister Boyko Borissov.

Gyurov, a central bank deputy governor and member of the pro-European, anti-corruption party Change Continues was appointed caretaker prime minister on February 11.

Opinion polls show a newly formed party led by former president Rumen Radev, Progressive Bulgaria, leading ahead of Borissov’s GERB.

The repeated elections underscore a deeper structural problem in Bulgaria, with declining public trust in political institutions following years of instability.

Borissov’s decade-long dominance ended in 2021, ushering in a series of fragile coalitions and caretaker governments. Although GERB returned to power in 2025, it was again toppled by street protests, prolonging a cycle of political uncertainty.