Bulgaria's Ex EU Commissioner Emerged Winner from Presidential Debate - Pollsters

Bulgaria's former EU Commissioner and current independent presidential candidate Meglena Kuneva has reportedly seen her popularity spike after Saturday's TV debate among the top three contenders for the post.

In a Monday interview for the morning broadcast of private TV channel bTV, sociologist Tsvetozar Tomov from the Skala polling agency commented on the October 15 debate held among the candidate of center-right ruling party GERB, Rosen Plevneliev, Meglena Kuneva, and the runner of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Ivaylo Kalfin.

bTV also asked Mira Radeva of the MBMD polling agency and Kancho Stoychev of the Sofia branch of BBSS Gallup International to give their opinions of the event.

Citing a survey held after the debate, Radeva declared that GERB's Rosen Plevneliev had performed best, registering a 35% approval score, while Kuneva and Kalfin had won the support of 21.6% and 21%, respectively.

"This data shows a verbal victory for Kuneva", Tomov indicated.

The three pollsters agreed that the ones to receive the greatest benefit from Saturday's debate were the voters because the televised discussion had given them the chance to hear the views of the top three opponents.

Mira Radeva added that the debate had also come in handy for the presidential candidates because it helped focus viewers' interest on the likeliest winners.

She also noted that a long-term study of voter support for the top three contenders for the psot of head of state had shown that shifts were likely to occur up until the last minute, especially between the first and the second round.

Kancho Stoychev reminded that the goal of such discussions was to help voters get as clear as possible a picture of the situation.

The co-founder of the Gallup agency in Sofia specified that the debate was usually decisive for the 10-15% of swing voters.

"We must not see polling agencies' findings as some sort of horse race betting", Stoychev cautioned, describing the current situation in the country as one where policemen had been tasked with organizing elections.

The sociologist drew attention to an independent candidate for mayor of Balchilk, a seaside resort situated on the northern Bulgarian seaside, who had been forced to remove billboards, following orders from above.

"We are enveloped in idiotism. GERB has not yet lost the elections, but GERB lost the opportunity to win the elections in a fair game...Having an Interior Minister campaign for a political party, well that is far from European," the sociologist stated, commenting on acting Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov's role as head of GERB's election headquarters.

Tsvetozar Tomov said that it was most logical for Plevneliev and Kalfin to go to the runoff stage but specified that the current findings should not be taken as conclusive.