Bulgaria’s second round of local elections: exit polls

The result of the first exit polls after voting ended on November 3 in Bulgaria’s second-round of local elections showed Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party as having won the largest share of votes in capital city Sofia, in Plovdiv and in Varna and several other major cities.

In Sofia, incumbent mayor Yordanka Fandukova, a deputy leader of the centre-right ruling GERB party wins fourth term of office. Alpha Research polling agency shows Fanadakova winning 53.5%, while her socialist-backed rival Maya Manolova wins 40.6%.

Gallup polling agency shows Yordanka Fandakova at 50.9%, and Maya Manolova at 42.7%.

In Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city, GERB mayoral candidate Zdravko Dimitrov wins 55.4% while Slavcho Atanassov, backed by a local electoral coalition of the nationalist VMRO and NFSB parties, won 39,1%, according to Alpha Research polling agency.

In the Black Sea coastal city of Varna, GERB candidate and incumbent mayor Ivan Portnih won a second term in office with a decisive victory of 61.7% against Kostadin Kostadinov, who won 33.9%, according to Gallup agency.

In Pleven, the incumbent mayor Georg Spartanski (independent) had 53.1% of the votes, while GERB-backed candidate Mirioslav Petrov remained second with 43.8%, according to polls by Apha Research.

Exit polls by Gallup show that in Blagoevgrad socialist-backed Roumen Tomov won 52.1%. GERB’s Atanas Kambitov got 43%.

In Vidin, GERB’s candidate Ognyan Tsenkov (39.7%) loses to Tsvetan Tsenkov, who won 57.8% of the votes.

In Yambol, Valentin Revanski, backed by Direct Democracy, is the new mayor with a convincing victory of more than 60% of the votes. The candidate of the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party. Katya Georgieva remained second.

GERB candidate Stefan Radev won the elections in Sliven.

Nine major cities in Bulgaria saw first-round victory of mayors in the local elections including Vratsa, Montana, Stara Zagora, Bourgas, Veliko Turnovo, Kardzhali, Gabrovo, Kyustendil and Haskovo.