Sofia, January 2 (BTA) - Bulgaria's Interior Ministry recorded more road traffic accidents and casualties in 2021 than in 2020. The Ministry's data show that 6,069 accidents occurred in 2021, compared to 5,708 in 2020. Also, 557 people were killed and 7,596 were injured in 2021, compared to 466 and 7,105 respectively in 2020

On November 23, in one of the worst ever road accidents in Bulgaria, a bus returning tourists to the Republic of North Macedonia crashed and 45 people were killed. Seven people were injured in the fire. Bulgaria's National Investigation Service is handling the accident.

In 2021, one of the Interior Ministry's priorities was to ensure that the three parliamentary elections and two rounds of presidential elections take place in normal conditions.

An interdepartmental unit set up for the April 4 parliamentary elections reported that 38 pre-trial proceedings were instituted and charges were brought against 12 persons by the end of Election Day.

Between the start of the campaign for the July 11 elections and the end of Election Day, the Interior Ministry received 1,139 alerts to violations of the election legislation and the citizens' political rights, up by nearly 60 per cent from that period in April. By mid-July, 104 proceedings for crimes against the citizens' political rights were instituted.

On November 14, Bulgaria held parliamentary and presidential elections for which the Interior Ministry received 1,002 alerts. Of 149 pre-trial proceedings, 118 were launched for violations of the citizens' political rights. Several dozen more alerts and pre-trial proceedings were reported in connection with the second round of the presidential elections.

In late October and early November, the Interior Ministry entered the public focus with its investigations into violations during the construction of Hemus Motorway. The police briefly arrested more than 10 persons and conducted an operation at Avtomagistrali, the state-owned road construction company. In-house procurement contracts for the construction of Hemus Motorway were probed. In early December, Borislav Kolev, 42, was charged with laundering 53 million leva paid for the construction of Hemus Motorway by the last GERB government. That sum vanished in an intricate scheme of straw companies. Avtomagistrali picked contractors without a competition, through an in-house procedure. From the contractors, the money reached straw companies with low-income and uneducated people as nominal owners and was withdrawn from the bank in bags, according to witnesses.

The 46th National Assembly, which was elected in July, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate police violence during anti-government protests in Sofia in the summer of 2020. The committee gave a hearing to former and present Interior Ministry officers after watching a video which showed uniformed police beating protesters near the main entrance to the government building. Following an investigation by the Ministry and the prosecuting magistracy, four police officers were charged with causing minor bodily harm and disciplinary proceedings were launched against 11 more officers.

Last year saw several big fires. On November 22, nine residents of an old people's home in the village of Royak, Varna Region, died in a fire that was most probably caused by a short circuit. Four secondary school students who rescued people from the blaze were given prizes by the President, the Interior Minister and the regional governor. Several dozen forest fires broke out, including a big one in Mount Rila, which was extinguished with the help of a Cougar helicopter from Krumovo Air Base.

In December, the Interior Ministry reported a steady downward trend in crime between January and November 2021 when crime dropped by 8 per cent from a year earlier. At the same time, the clearance rate rose by 3 per cent to 46 per cent of recorded crime. At 31 per cent, the decrease in recorded crime was most tangible for motor vehicle theft, of which 282 cases were reported in 2021. Robberies dropped by 21 per cent to 772 in the first 11 months of 2021 from 974 a year earlier. Thefts dropped by nearly 14 per cent. Drug-related crimes were down by 3.4 per cent and the clearance rate was nearly 75 per cent, up by 7.5 percentage points from a year earlier. While the recorded murders increased by 21 from 2020, the clearance rate was nearly 100 per cent in the first eleven months of both 2020 and 2021. DD