Sofia Incumbent Re-Elected with 50.57% - Municipal Electoral Body

Politics | October 29, 2007, Monday // 00:00
Bulgaria: Sofia Incumbent Re-Elected with 50.57% - Municipal Electoral Body Borissov reinforced his image of a hardman, who is best suited to tackle Sofia's numerous problems, by showing up with his dog, Borko, at the polling station on Sunday. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)

Sofia incumbent mayor Boyko Borisov has secured a victory in Sunday's race after garnering 50.57% of the votes, show data of the local electoral body after counting 11% of the ballots.

Second came in rightist Martin Zaimov with 18.87%, followed by Socialist Brigo Asparuhov, who got 16.01%, according to data of the Municipal Electoral Committee, released five hours after the voting precincts closed at 7 pm.

Earlier in the day an exit poll carried out by Sova Harris gave Boyko Borisov, who describes himself as centre-right, 52,6% of the vote, seeing off the challenge from rightist Martin Zaimov, who got 19,6%, and Socialist Brigo Asparuhov, who came in third with 13,2%.

Pollsters Alfa Research gave Borissov, whose high public approval ratings go back to the time when he was the country's top cop, a total 52%. Former deputy central bank governor Zaimov follows with 18,2%, while Bulgaria's former top spy Asparuhov is next with 15,1%.

The exit polls by Gallup gave Borissov 53,1%, Zaimov - 19,4% and Asparuhov - 13,6%.

Borissov's GERB party, which he founded last year, is expected to have the biggest number of representatives in the capital's 61-seat municipal council, winning an estimated 45%, according to the National Centre for Public Opinion Research.

The alliance of rightist Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB), which backed Zaimov, has won 18,1%, according to the exit polls, while the Socialists got 15%.

Nationalist Ataka party nominee Slavi Binev came in fourth with 4-5%, while ex-king Simeon Saxe-Couburg's NMSP candidate Antonia Parvanova won 3-4%, according to the exit polls.

Turnout in the capital was reported at 30,1% at 5 pm, two hours before polling stations closed.

Borissov, a former bodyguard to communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, was appointed secretary-general of the Interior Ministry in 2001 after ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg won the parliamentary elections and took charge of the cabinet.

He has immediately won numerous supporters with his direct and uncompromising style, as well as his tough stance on organised crime, but his opponents accuse him of being too brash and lacking expertise.

Borissov took over from long-serving mayor Stefan Sofianski two years ago, having won the by-election called when Sofianski decided to make the step up and become an MP after ten years at the helm of the city.

Borissov failed to deal with some of the city's biggest problems, such as garbage collection or congested traffic, for which he blamed the constant skirmishes with his municipal council, where the Socialists have a majority of seats and the mayor himself barely any support.

Even though that stands to change with GERB poised to win a plurality of seats, Borissov has repeatedly hinted he sought to knock the Socialists out of power and has not committed himself to seeing out his second term.

Bulgarians headed Sunday to elect mayors and municipal councillors in a vote that tested the stability of the ruling coalition after a month of escalating social tension.

The elections are considered to be as important and interesting as a general vote yet much more complicated due to long ballot papers, thousands of candidates and recently passed restrictions on voting tourism.

Polling stations opened at 6 am local time and closed at 7 pm, but some of them worked one more hour than scheduled to serve citizens, who wanted to cast a ballot in each of 11 428 election sections.

A total of 35 district mayors, 2914 mayors of mayoralty, 264 municipal mayors and 5232 municipal councillors are to be elected among more than 60,000 runners. They were nominated by 88 parties and coalitions.

This was the first time that the district mayors in the cities of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna will be elected in a direct vote as well as the mayors in a few newly declared towns.

The exact number of the citizens across Bulgaria, who were eligible to vote is 6 967 551.

These were the fifth municipal election in Bulgaria since the fall of communism in 1989.

Under Bulgaria's election law the only way to avoid a run-off ballot is when a candidate receives more that half of the valid votes.

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