site.btaBulgaria Votes to Elect Its New President Sunday

Bulgaria Votes to Elect Its New President Sunday


Sofia, November 6 (BTA) - After a 30-day campaign and a day of reflection, Bulgarians are going to the polls on Sunday to elect a new President. These are Bulgaria's first presidential elections governed by the new Election Code and the fifth in the democratic history of the country.

The presidential vote is held simultaneously with a national referendum where voters are asked to support or reject the introduction of a two-round majoritarian system for parliamentary elections and compulsory voting and a 90.9 per cent reduction of subsidies for political parties.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Registration and Administrative Services with the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, eligible voters for the 2016 presidential elections number 6,834,278.

A total of 21 candidates are running for the President’s office. They cut across the political spectrum: left, right, centrist and nationalist. The pairs of candidates include the incumbent National Assembly Chairperson (Tsetska Tsacheva of GERB) and two Deputy Chairpersons (Krassimir Karakachanov and Yavor Notev of the United Patriots) plus two more sitting MPs and a Member of the European Parliament (Socialist-backed Iliana Iotova), a former prime minister (Plamen Oresharski, supported by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms) and two former deputy prime ministers (Ivailo Kalfin of ABV and Social Democrat Alexander Tomov), two former government ministers (Traicho Traikov of the Reformist Bloc and Oresharski's running mate Danail Papazov,), two retired generals (Socialist-supported Rumen Radev and Traikov's VP hopeful Sabi Sabev) and a retired vice admiral (Tsacheva's running mate Plamen Manoushev), two controversial businessmen (Vesselin Mareshki and Nikolai Banev), a filmmaker (Kalfin's partner Lyubomir Halachev), a "counterprotestor" with a record of seven convictions (Bisser Milanov), a showman (Dimiter Marinov, aka "Mityo the Big Gun"), a pop folk singer (Radoslav Petrov, aka "Rado the Pine Cone"), and even a faith-healer clairvoyant (Yordanka Koleva, aka "Yoana Rubin"). The oldest of them all, George Ganchev, 77, is running for the third time, after 1992 (when he placed third on 17 per cent of the votes) and 1996. Kalfin and Karakachanov bid for the presidency in the previous elections in 2011, when they garnered 28.96 and 0.99 per cent, respectively.

The incumbent head of State, Rosen Plevneliev, said as early as on May 20, 2016 that he will not seek re-election.

The polls opened at 7:00 a.m. and will close at 8:00 p.m. By exception, if voters are still waiting outside the polling site at 8:00 p.m., voting may continue until 9:00 p.m.

Balloting will take place in 12,418 voting sections in Bulgaria (excluding those at hospitals and prisons), grouped in 7,062 polling sites, and 325 sections abroad in 71 countries (53 in the UK and 35 each in the US and Turkey).


For the first time in any elections in Bulgaria, voting on November 6 is compulsory.

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By 03:26 on 29.07.2024 Today`s news

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