site.btaKornelia Ninova Reelected Socialist Party Leader on 81.5% of Vote in First Direct Election

102 POLITICS - SOCIALISTS - LEADER - ELECTION

Kornelia Ninova Reelected
Socialist Party Leader on 81.5% of Vote
in First Direct Election


Sofia, September 13 (BTA) - Kornelia Ninova won the first direct election for Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) chairperson after garnering 81.5 per cent of the vote. Ninova's reelection was supported by 43,228 party members during the vote on Saturday, election commission head Emil Voinov said on Sunday, unveiling preliminary results at a news conference.

The list of voters, after striking off those who have died or dropped out by voting day, includes 80,236 names. Of them, 53,807 cast their ballot, putting voter turnout at 67.1 per cent, Voinov said. There were 53,019 valid votes.

Among the other three candidates for BSP chairperson, Kiril Dobrev (Ninova's deputy so far) won 14.9 per cent of the vote, MP Krassimir Yankov got 2.1 per cent, and MP Valeri Zhablyanov earned 1.4 per cent.

Voinov commented: "The BSP organized a model election which can be emulated during national elections." According to him, the ballot was fair, with only insignificant complaints and alerts about violations of the election process, which did not practically affect the voting results. The complaints will be referred to the respective municipal control commissions and the all-party Control Commission. LN/VE