site.bta19 Regional Capitals Vote for Mayors in Second Round of Elections

On Sunday, the residents of 19 regional capitals in Bulgaria, including Sofia, are electing municipality mayors in a second round of voting. Citizens are voting for 91 municipality mayors, 31 borough mayors, and 451 mayoralty mayors in some 7,250 polling stations.

Both paper ballots and voting machines are available in 5,900 of them, according to preliminary information by the Central Election Commission.

Election day started at 7 a.m. and will end at 8 p.m.; it can be extended until 9 p.m. if there are voters waiting to exercise their franchise. A total of 6,308,052 Bulgarians are eligible to vote in the runoffs, including those who have acquired voting rights between the two rounds.

Runoff elections are being held in Blagoevgrad, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kyustendil, Lovech, Pazardzhik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia, Haskovo, and Shumen. The run-off is limited to the top two vote getters in municipalities, mayoralties and boroughs where none of the contestants received more than 50 per cent of the valid votes cast in the first round on October 29. The candidate who gains the most valid votes in the second round will be elected mayor.

Following is a list of the candidates running for municipal mayor by regional capital (in alphabetical order). The first candidate in every city is the one who received the most votes in the first round of local elections:

Blagoevgrad

Ilko Stoyanov (nominating committee) vs Metodi Baikushev (Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria)

Varna

Ivan Portnih (GERB) vs Blagomir Kotsev (Continue the  Change-Democratic Bulgaria)

Veliko Tarnovo 

Daniel Panov (GERB) vs Yordan Terziiski (Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria)

Vidin 

Tsvetan Tsenkov (UDF local coalition) vs Alexander Mateev (GERB)

Gabrovo 

Tanya Hristova (GERB) vs Daniel Petrov (Vazrazhdane)

Dobrich

Yordan Yordanov (DBG local coalition) vs Krassimir Nikolov (GERB)

Kyustendil

Petar Paunov (GERB) vs Ognyan Atanassov (Green Party) 

Lovech

Valentina Nedyalkova (GERB-UDF) vs Stratsimir Petrov (There Is Such a People)

Pazardzhik

Todor Popov (New Time) vs Petar Kulenski (Continue the Change- Democratic Bulgaria)

Pleven

Valentin Hristov (GERB) vs Georg Spartanski (nomination committee)

Plovdiv

Kostadin Dimitrov (GERB) vs Ivailo Staribratov (Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria)

Razgrad

Miroslav Grancharov (Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria) vs Dobrin Dobrev (independent)

Ruse

Pencho Milkov (BSP for Bulgaria) vs Ivan Ivanov (GERB) 

Silistra

Alexander Sabanov (independent) vs Ivelin Ivanov (GERB)

Sliven

Stefan Radev (GERB) vs Plamen Stoyanov (Direct Democracy)

Smolyan

Nikolai Melemov (GERB) vs Stefan Sabrutev (Our City Movement)

Sofia

Vassil Terziev (Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria) vs Vanya Grigorova (BSP for Bulgaria)

Haskovo

Stanislav Dechev (GERB) vs Nikolai Stavrev (independent)

Shumen

Hristo Hristov (BSP for Bulgaria) vs Georgi Kolev (GERB)