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In Sunday’s run-off Ivan Portnih (pictured) garnered 51,41% of the votes, while Bulgarian Socialist Party backed vice-mayor Hristo Bozov came in second with 48,59%. File photo
Ivan Portnih, candidate of Bulgaria’s formerly ruling center-right party GERB, has won the battle for mayor of the coastal city of Varna by a slim margin.
Sunday's run-off pitched Portnih, who garnered 51,41% of the votes, against Bulgarian Socialist Party backed vice-mayor Hristo Bozov, who came in second with 48,59%.
At the first round of the elections last Sunday, Bozov came in first with 30%, followed by Portnih with some 27%.
The first round was marked by record low voter turnout – only 25% or 74 000 people went to the polls on Sunday, June 30. In the run-off the turnout was only slightly higher - 26,36%.
Early March, fourth-term Varna mayor Kiril Yordanov resigned after weeks of street protests against social economic stagnation, and the influence of shady business group TIM over the city and region.
The Varna rallies triggered Bulgaria's January and February 2013 protests that led to the resignation of then-PM Boyko Borisov and his GERB Cabinet, and calling of early elections May 12.
They also tragically included a number of fatal self-immolations, many of them due to poverty and personal distress.
In Varna, young man Plamen Goranov, dubbed by some "Bulgaria's Jan Palach", perished after setting himself on flame as an act of protest against corruption in the city.
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In a recent development, GERB leader Boyko Borissov has categorically dismissed the possibility of forging an alliance with "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) following the upcoming elections
Amidst mounting concerns over Bulgaria's delayed second payment under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, former Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov has squarely pointed the finger at the GERB party
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Two candidates are vying to be mayor of Bulgaria's third-largest city and summer capital, Varna on the Black Sea coast.
The Sofia City Prosecutor's Office final count of the alleged illegal ballots discovered at a printing house in Kostinbrod hours ahead of the May 12 early elections is 480 000.
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