5,000 voters to participate in Bulgaria elections
The polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and are scheduled to close at 7:00 p.m. (1700 GMT). The eligible voters are about seven million. At stake are mayoral and councilors’ seats in 263 municipalities. A total of 2,223 candidates from 146 parties and coalitions are running for the mayors.
The opposition Socialist Party seemed best positioned in the eve of the ballot with support of some 22%, while the ruling National Movement Simeon II (NMSS) was expected to collect some 8% of the voters, according to most polling agencies.
The other main opposition party, the center-right Union of Democratic Forces, was expected to win about 11%. An ethnic Turkish party that is NMSS’s junior coalition partner was gathering between 5% and 6% of the vote in the public opinion polls.
Pollsters saw Sofia’s current Mayor Stefan Sofiyanski as the front-runner in the 1.5-million capital, which has so far been UDF’s main electoral stronghold. Sofiyanski, who left the UDF for disagreements with its leaders in 2001, was expected to collect some 22% of the vote. He is running on the ballot of the Union of Free Democrats, a party he established with some breakaway UDF members.
Socialist candidate Stoyan Alexandrov, a banker and former minister of finance, is trailing Sofiyanski with some 14% in the forecasts. Mihaylova ranked third in the polls with about 10% and NMSS candidate Minister of Sports Vasil Ivanov was fourth with some 6%.
The NMSS had won some 43% at the general elections in June 2001, but largely lost support in the past couple of years after failing to meet expectations of significant improvement of living standards that Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski, Bulgaria’s former king, had sparkled.
The UDF has suffered a serious setback after recent revelations of a dubious US$200,000 donation it received from a Cyprus-based offshore firm. Earlier this year, UDF leader Nadezhda Mihaylova decided to run for Sofia mayor after withdrawing the initial candidate Plamen Oresharski, whom she accused of compromising the party by contacts with a controversial businessman.
