site.btaPartial Local Elections Held in 13 Settlements on Sunday

Partial local elections were held in 13 settlements across Bulgaria on Sunday. The reasons for the partial elections included resignation of the mayor, annulment of the results of the local elections in October 2023, equal number of votes for the mayoral candidates in the second round of elections, and death of the mayor.

Partial elections were held for mayor of the villages of Lyutibrod, Pavolche, Mogilino, Stroumeshnitsa, Zhitnitsa, Chernook, Zaburdo, Elenovo, Gorno Tserovene, Iskritsa, Razboyna, Stokite, and Cherna Gora. Following is election information obtained by BTA from the corresponding municipal election commissions by 10 p.m. on Sunday.

In Stroumeshnitsa, 201 out of 292 people cast their votes for one out of two candidates. Nikolay Manolchev of GERB won with 139 votes against Socialist candidate Nikola Dsakov with 33 votes. Twenty-eight voters chose the I Support No One option on the ballot. There was one invalid ballot. No election violations were reported. 

In Mogilino, 67.62% of the 139 residents with the right to vote went to the voting section. Three candidates run in the elections, and the first two - Aneliya Alexandrova of Vazrazhdane and Kamen Raev of GERB - will now have to compete in run-offs after garnering 37.2% and 35.1% of the votes, respectively. No reports on election violations were received.

In Iskritsa, the voter turnout was 75.91%. A total of 137 residents had the right to vote for one out of three candidates. Out of the 104 voters who went to the ballot boxes, 41 voted for Dinka Radkova, 29 for Encho Enev, and 28 for Nedka Gospodinova, meaning run-offs will have to be held. The municipal election commission was not alerted about any irregularities.

In Razboyna, the election day ended with around 55% of all 765 voters exercising their right and no reports on election violations. No one used the option to vote by voting machine, the municipal election commission told BTA. There was a single candidate for the mayoralty, Hatche Behchet, nominated by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. 

In Pavolche, a total of 358 people (60.99%) cast their votes for one out of three candidates.

In Zhitnitsa, a total of 693 people had the right to vote and in Chernook, 165. 

In Stokite, the voter turnout was 80.66%, with 146 people casting their ballots. No irregularities were reported. 

In Cherna Gora, 223 people had the right to vote for one out of two candides. Election day passed without irregularities.

In Gorno Tserovene, 425 residents had the right to vote for one out of two candidates. No incidents were reported on election day.

In Elenovo, 324 voters had the right to cast a vote for one out of three candidates. The municipal election commission has not received alerts and complaints about irregularities on election day.