GERB Runner, Socialist Go to Presidential Run-Off in Bulgaria - Exit Poll

GERB Presidency bidders Rosen Plevneliev and Margarita Popova (left) will face Socialist bidders Ivaylo Kalfin and Stefan Danailov (right). Photos by BGNES

Bulgaria's former construction minister Rosen Plevneliev from the center-right party GERB of PM Boyko Borisov has emerged as the leader in Sunday's presidential elections.

However, Plevneliev failed to win outright and avoid a runoff in a week in Sunday's vote, whose turnout reached 47% first polls results show.

He has been forced into a second round with Ivaylo Kalfin, a former Foreign Minister from the opposition Socialist Party.

The result comes as no surprise as all polls had said that none of the 18 presidential candidates would manage to get more than 50% of the vote, and a runoff will be required on Oct. 30.

Plevneliev garnered 41.4% of the votes, according to Gallup polls, released by private bTV channel immediately after the last polling station closed at 7 p.m.

In the run-off next week, Plevneliev will face Ivaylo Kalfin, who won 26.8 % of the votes.

Plevneliev's other main rival, independent Meglena Kuneva, a former European Union commissioner, ranked third with 15.6 of the votes.

Plevneliev is running together with former Justice Minister Margarita Popova. His huge lead was facilitated by the lack of a real challenger in Bulgaria's opposition.

Apathy and accusations of corruption yielded a turnout of 47%. By contrast, 76% of Bulgarians voted in the first post-communist presidential elections in 1992.

Nationalist presidential candidate Volen Siderov, who is the leader of the Ataka party and managed to make it to the run-off in the previous presidential elections in October 2006, saw the support of 4.0% of the voters and ranked fourth.

He was followed by rightist Blue Coalition Rumen Hristov with 2.3%

The Bulgarian presidency is largely ceremonial, but is very respected and entitled to legislative veto power.

The lead of Plevneliev, 47, strengthens power for his ruling GERB party, to push ahead with its agenda for painful economic reforms and Bulgaria's accession to the passport-free Schengen travel zone.

The center-right party, which came into office in the summer of 2009 with promises to root out corruption and boost Bulgaria's competitiveness, has failed to convince the European Union what it has done is enough and has seen its hopes for Schengen entry damped time and again.

It has also faced a huge challenge in trying to cope with the country's economic woes, which were only exacerbated by the eurozone debt crisis as demand for exports from the country decreased.

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 take part in the elections. The sites in the capital only were guarded by almost 2,000 police officers.

Polls opened at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday and closed at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT), with 6.9 million people eligible to vote.

Although the president is a figurehead and real power lies with the government of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the former Sofia mayor, the low turnout was widely seen as snub to the whole political establishment.

The election campaign has been marred by protests against the country's Roma minority, an explosion of a self-made bomb that blasted the car of a popular Bulgarian journalist, known for his harsh criticism against the government.

International observers have also voiced serious concerns about the fairness of the vote. There have been reports about large-scale vote buying and manipulations in the counting of the ballots.

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