Bulgaria heads for second-round mayoral elections in 97 municipalities on November 3
Voters in 97 municipalities in Bulgaria, including 18 major cities, will be invited back to the ballot boxes on November 3 in a second round of mayoral election, it emerged from Central Election Commission figures.
On October 27, a total of 168 municipalities elected a mayor at the first round.
The nine major cities where a mayor was elected at the first round are Bourgas, Vratsa, Montana, Stara Zagora, Veliko Turnovo, Kurdzhali, Gabrovo, Kyustendil and Haskovo. Of these, eight of the winners were from Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB party and one, in Kurdzhali, from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.
Of the 18 major cities where run-off mayoral elections will be held, in nine GERB will be up against a candidate backed by the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party.
In Bulgaria’s Danube city of Rousse and in Razgrad, the Bulgarian Socialist Party candidate got the most votes in the first round of the mayoral election. In Rousse, by about 10 points, and in Razgrad, by about one point.
The 18 cities set for run-off mayoral elections on November 3 are Blagoevgrad, Varna, Vidin, Dobrich, Lovech, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Rousse, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia, Shoumen, Turgovishte and Yambol.
Run-offs are also being held in several district mayor election contests, including in Sofia.
In the city council elections in Sofia, Borissov’s GERB did not win sufficient seats to govern alone. Of the Sofia city council seats, 27 go to GERB, 15 to the BSP, 12 to Democratic Bulgaria, four to the VMRO, two to Ataka, while Boris Bonev of Spasi Sofia, standing as an independent, won one.
Provisional data show that overall voter turnout in Bulgaria on October 27 was about 51 per cent.
Bulgaria’s 2019 local elections: Factfile
