site.btaBulgaria Local Elections and National Referendum: Exit Polls

Bulgaria Local Elections and National Referendum: Exit Polls

Sofia, October 25 (BTA) - The exit polls after the Sunday local elections show that the parties in the ruling coalition keep their political positions. GERB remains the largest political force, winning the mayor seat in several key cities outright, including Sofia, Bourgas and Varna.

Following are the results in some of the major cities according to the exit polls of polling agencies on the basis of 46.5% voter turnout in the local elections as at 18 hrs. local time.

Turnount in the national referendum as at the same time was 35%. Seventy-one per cent of those who voted in the referendum, voted "yes".

Sofia:
Yordanka Fandakova, GERB - 60%
Vili Lilkov, Reformist Bloc (RB) -10%
Mihail Mirchev, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) - 8 %

Plovdiv:
Ivan Totev, GERB - 37%
Slavcho Atanassov, Patriotic Front - 20%
Georgi Gergov, BSP - 12.5%

Bourgas
Dimiter Nikolov, GERB - 84%
Kamen Seimenlinski, ABV - 17%
Egenii Mossinov, BSP - 10%

Varna
Ivan Portnih, GERB - 57.9%
Chavdar Trifonov, RB - 11.6%

Kurdjali
Hassan Azis, Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) - 54%
Ilia Iliev, GERB - 27.7%

Haskovo
Dobri Belivanov, GERB - 50%
Georgi Ivanov, a coalition of forces, including RB - 30%
Myumyun Myumyun, MRF - 10%.

The national breakdown by parties according to voter turnout and exit poll data as at 18 hrs. is as follows

GERB - 34.5%
BSP - 17.12%
MRF - 14.6%
RB - 9%
ABV - 4.3%
Ataka - 3.1%
National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria - 2.75%
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) - 2.5%
Others 12.1%.

Alpha Research expert Boryana Dimitrova told the national TV that the election results do not put in question the sustainability of the ruling coalition of GERB, the RB, ABV, and the Patriotic Front.

Haralan Alexandrov said that the results guarantee the minimum stability that Bulgaria needs to address its most pressing issues.

Journalist Petko Georgiev said that the expectations that the results of the local elections will enable MRF to claim a place in the ruling coalition were proven wrong: MRF confirmed its standing as a regional force with national ambitions.

Speaking to reporters, Sofia Mayor Fandakova who was elected for a new term already at the first round of voting said that "this was not a victory foretold but a result of a job well done". "We will continue to work with an even faster pace, we start new programmes already tomorrow," she said.

BSP runer for Sofia mayor Mirchev said that the preliminary results were "absurd" and "savage forgergy. Mirchev was adamant that the only mechanism of whether the elections were fair is the parallel count of the votes which is expected to be ready on Monday. BSP Spokesman Atanas Merdhjanov said that the crashed website of CEC puts in doubt the information about voter turnout and exit polls results released on the basis of data revealed on social media and other Internet sources.

RB election campaign centre head Naiden Zelenogorski said that the showing of the Bloc is that better than the last general elections. Zelenogorski described as a success the fact that in 95 per cent of the municipalities the RB, which is a coalition of formations, had a single joint runner.

Socioligist Kolyu Kolev said that given that GERB and the BSP did not show dramatic increases in their standings, the RB emerged as the only winner, which in his views, would cushion the tensions in the ruling coalition.