Bulgaria’s 2023 local elections: Mayoral runoffs in Sofia, some other large cities – exit poll
Exit polls at 8pm on October 29 indicated that there will be second-round voting in mayoral elections in capital city Sofia and some other large cities in Bulgaria’s local elections.
To win at the first round, a candidate must get 50%+1 of the vote. Where this does not happen, a runoff election will be held, on November 5, between the two candidates with the largest shares of the vote.
In Sofia, an Alpha Research exit poll showed We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria-Spasi Sofia candidate Vassil Terziev with 37 per cent, with the situation of the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s Vanya Grigorova and GERB-UDF candidate Anton Hekimyan very difficult to call, with the gap between them within the margin of error. According to the poll, Grigorova had 20.7 per cent and Hekimyan 18.9 per cent.
In the share-out of Sofia city council seats, Alpha Research’s exit poll showed WCC-DB getting 39.4 per cent, GERB-UDF 20.5 per cent, the BSP 13.4 per cent and Vuzrazhdane 11.2 per cent.
In Plovdiv, GERB mayoral candidate Kostadin Dimitrov had 32.1 per cent and WCC-DB candidate Ivailo Staribratov 22.4 per cent, according to the exit poll.
In Varna, incumbent mayor Ivan Portnih (GERB), who is seeking a third term, had 27.1 per cent and Blagomir Kotsev (WCC-DB) 26.7 per cent.
In Rousse, incumbent mayor Pencho Milkov (BSP), who is seeking a third term, had 35 per cent and GERB’s Ivan Ivanov 17.5 per cent.
According to the Market Links agency, in Bourgas, incumbent mayor Dimitar Nikolov (GERB) seemed set for a fifth term, after already setting a record as the city’s longest-serving mayor, with 55.9 per cent. In a distant second place was Vuzrazhdane’s Todor Angelov, with 8.7 per cent.
Bulgaria’s 2023 municipal elections: The Sofia Globe’s factfile
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