site.btaSocialist-backed Radev Faces Ruling GERB'S Candidate Tsacheva in Bulgaria's Presidential Runoff

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS RUNOFF: Socialist-backed Radev Faces Ruling GERB'S Candidate Tsacheva

Sofia, November 13 (BTA) - Socialist-backed Rumen Radev faces off the candidate of the ruling GERB Tsetska Tsacheva in a second round of Bulgarian presidential elections on Sunday.

The runoffs are held now after none of the 21 candidates managed to win more than half of the votes in the first round of elections on November 6.

In the first round Radev garnered 25.45 per cent, followed by Tsacheva with 21.97 per cent.

Just over 3.9 million Bulgarians went to the polls on November 6, ensuring a turnout of 56.13 per cent.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) now appears to command the broadest support after its candidate won the most votes in 20 out of 28 regions of Bulgaria.

Following a meeting at the party headquarters attended by ministers on November 6, Bulgarian Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko Borissov said that the government would step down if his party's candidate loses the runoff.

Commenting the outcome of the first round, Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova, who is a sociologist by training, said the strong support for the Socialist-backed candidate is a kind of a protest vote against the ruling majority.

Some social analysts believe that voters have embraced the BSP as a weapon for punishment but not for changing the status quo. Social analyst Yurii Aslanov expects that if early elections are held, GERB will trounce BSP as the adjustment on the political scene has been qualitative and not quantitative.

Polls showed Radev to have increased his lead over Tsacheva in the runup to the second round of elections.

A Gallup International Balkan poll taken on November 8-9 produced a picture in which 51 per cent go for Radev, 40 per cent for Tsacheva and 9 per cent for neither candidate.

A final poll held by Alpha Research and Nova TV three days ahead of the runoff shows that Radev gets 49.6 per cent of support among those who are determined to vote and Tsacheva 39.1 per cent. Radev's lead is mostly due to the support of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) electorate, who voted for Plamen Oresharski in the first round of the elections: 90 per cent of these voters now support the retired general. He also appears to have won over 80 per cent of those who voted for ABV candidate IvaIlo Kalfin and 40 per cent each from the voters of nationalist Krassimir Karakachanov and businessman-turned-politician Vesselin Mareshki.

Tsacheva, too, has mobilized additional support, be it not of the same scale as Radev, coming from three groups of voters: those whose first-round choice was the candidate of the Reformist Bloc Traicho Traikov (56 per cent of them), those who voted for Karakachanov and for Mareshki (25 per cent from each). But she got practically nothing from Oresharski's and MRF's electorate.

Pollsters say that at this point it is difficult to factor in the effect of the "none of the above" option.

According to Gallup, the turnout is likely to be lower than in the first round when it stood at 56.13 per cent. The sociologists give two reasons. First, the turnout peaked at four million voters in the first round partly due to the referendum. Second, a considerable number of supporters of failed candidates will not back anyone or will not vote.

Based on the official voter registers, some 52.6 per cent of voters (approximately 3.6 million) are expected to cast a ballot in the second round according to Alpha Research.

According to Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova, 2 million people did not go the polls in the first round and even if only half of them show up for the runoff, that would reverse the outcome.

Radev and Tsacheva met for a final debate Thursday. It was only the second between the two after one held early in the elections campaign before the first round of voting.

The Socialist party denied having had any talks with the MRF on possible support for Radev before the first and second round of elections.

The MRF had earlier hinted his party would back Radev in the runoff.

DOST vowed to continue to support Tsacheva.

The United Patriots said they leave it up to their supporters to decide which of the two presidential candidates to back on November 13.

The Reformist Bloc urges its supporters to vote for Tsacheva after their candidate Traicho Traikov failed to reach the runoff.

Tsacheva was also endorsed by the President of the European People's Party (EPP), Joseph Daul and Radev saw an endorsement from the Party of European Socialists.

ABV renewed its calls for early elections arguing that the incumbent government has run out of ideas, policies and personalities.

Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva and Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told the press they were against snap elections as they would put the country on auto-pilot mode, halt reforms, produce a fragmented Parliament that would be more or less a carbon-copy of the current legislature, and ultimately undermine political stability.