Local Vote 2007 Results

Sofia incumbent mayor Boyko Borissov won re-election by a landslide on Sunday after securing 53.43% of the vote, shows data with 100% of the election protocols in the capital processed. A total of 202 800 citizens of the Bulgarian capital cast their vote for the popular mayor Borissov, who describes himself as centre-right.

Former deputy central bank governor and rightist candidate Martin Zaimov came in second with 17,77% (67 454 ballots), while Bulgaria\’s former top spy and Socialist runner Brigo Asparuhov ranked third with 15,48% (58 774 ballots). Nationalist Ataka party nominee Slavi Binev came in fourth with 4.02%, while ex-king Simeon Saxe-Couburg\’s NMSP candidate Antonia Parvanova won 2.55%, according to the final results.

Borissov, a former bodyguard to communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, was appointed secretary-general of the Interior Ministry in 2001 after ex-king Simeon Saxe-Coburg won the parliamentary elections and took charge of the cabinet. He has immediately won numerous supporters with his direct and uncompromising style, as well as his tough stance on organised crime, but his opponents accuse him of being too brash and lacking expertise. Even though that stands to change with GERB poised to win a plurality of seats, Borissov has repeatedly hinted he sought to knock the Socialists out of power and has not committed himself to seeing out his second term.Tip-offs about buying and selling of votes at Bulgaria\’s local elections on Sunday heated the situation throughout the whole day, with most of them being anonymous, officials from the Central Electoral Committee said Monday. The vote buyers have targeted once again the Roma districts the most, and the money offered for a vote ranged from BGN 15 to BGN 100 in Sofia, while in Bulgaria\’s second largest city of Plovdiv the offered pay-off reached BGN 50. More than 20 people were arrested around the country on charges of attempting to buy votes, but later all of them were released.

Public Administration Minister Nikolay Vassilev admitted Bulgaria had a serious problem with this issue, which could only be overcome by introducing mandatory voting. The biggest percentage of electoral law violations was recorded in the Black Sea town of Nessebar, where the percentage reached almost 70%. In the town of Silistra on the Danube River, vote-buyers found another way to pay for the “goods” – they offered bags with flour to the voters. In the capital Sofia tip-offs for attempted vote-buying were reported in the districts of Ilinden and Vladaya.