Presidential Elections 2006

Bulgaria’s current Socialist President Georgi Parvanov took a further lead in the presidential race, the final votes count revealed. Parvanov garnered a record high 64.033 % of the votes, while the rival he will face at the run-off, leader of ultra-nationalist party Attack Volen Siderov won 21.491% of the votes. Parvanov’s other main rival, the hardliner right-wing candidate Nedelcho Beronov ranked third with 9.737 % of the counted votes.

Fourth came the other rightist runner Georgi Markov, former constitutional judge and a symbolic figure of Bulgaria’s transition to democracy. Markov, who ran together with young businesswoman Maria Ivanova, garnered 2.716% of the votes.

Parvanov ran together with Vice President Anguel Marin as an independent, but had the backing of the governing Socialist Party. An eventual victory would make him the first politician to win re-election, as no president has ever been re-elected since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989.

A total of about 11,400 polling sections across the country were opened for citizens to vote and more than six million Bulgarians were eligible to partake in the elections. The sites in the capital only were guarded by almost 2,000 police officers.

Bulgaria’s Re-Election Headed President Georgi Parvanov is most likely to win in run-offs, gaining the lead over nationalist Volen Siderov, show surveys of drvrral sociology agency. According to the poll there will be no change in turnouts on Sunday, compared to October 22. Parvanov will win a convincing victory over Siderov in run-offs and is likely to get three quarters of the votes, MBMD pollster Petar Zhivkov said.

According to MBMD’s exit polls from the first round of the elections, 40 % of the people who voted for rightists’ candidate Nedelcho Beronov have declared they will not vote in run-offs if they are between Parvanov and Siderov. Part of the people will vote in run-offs not because they actually support Parvanov, but because they want to protect the European appearance of the country from ultra nationalist influence.