Bulgaria's Ruling Party Bidder Well Ahead in Presidential Polls

Left: Rosen Plevneliev and Margarita Popova, candidates of ruling party GERB for the Bulgarian Presidency; right: their Socialist opponents Ivaylo Kalfin and Stefan Danailov. Photos by BGNES

Rosen Plevneliev, the candidate of the ruling center-right party GERB for the Bulgarian Presidency, is well in the lead before three weeks before the October 23 elections, a poll shows.

A total of 32% of the eligible voters have expressed support for Plevneliev, a former construction entrepreneur and Regional Development Minister, according to the survey of the National Center for Study of Public Opinion.

Ivaylo Kalfin, MEP and candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, comes in second with 18%, while former EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva is rated third with only 9% of the votes.

Volen Siderov, leader of the nationalist party Ataka, is predicted to come in fourth with 4%, followed by Rumen Hristov from the rightist Union of Democratic Forces with 3%.

The National Center for Study of Public Opnion, however, expects that Kalfin will start catching up with Pleveneliev in the remaining time before the elections.

The sociologists have pointed out that the nomination of popular actor Stefan Danailov as Kalfin's running mate makes it more likely that the Socialist running couple will make it to a run-off denying Plevneliev a win at the first round.

The poll shows further that 38% of the voters of Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms), which decided to abstain from nominating a candidate but asked its voters to vote against GERB's Plevneliev, will throw their weight behind BSP's bidder Kalfin; 15% of the DPS voters say they would back Kuneva, while 31% remain undecided.

Plevneliev and his running mate Margarita Popova are reported to be enjoying strong support in all age groups below 50 years of age, while the Socialist candidate is favored by the plurality of the people over 59. Kuneva is found to be in the lead among those aged between 50 and 59.

In the event of a run-off between Plevneliev and Kalfin, the Socialist bidder is predicted to lose by getting only about 28% of the votes.

The poll of the National Center for Study of Public Opinion was carried out in the last week of September. It predicts a voter turnout for the Bulgarian presidential and local elections on October 23, 2011, of between 50% and 55%.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!