Bulgaria’s Gabrovo New Mayor Challenged in Court

“We do not dispute the GERB candidate’s first position, only his electing in the first round,” RZS leader Yane Yanev said. Photo by BGNES

The leader of Bulgaria’s conservatives has confirmed his party RZS will challenge in court the election of the new city mayor of Gabrovo, citing a number of alleged inaccuracies in the vote.

Nikolay Sirakov from Bulgaria's center-right ruling party GERB was elected the new mayor of Gabrovo after winning 57% of the votes in Satursday's elections. RZS candidate Pencho Penchev ranked third with 10.5 % of the votes.

The leader of the conservative Order, Law and Justice (RZS), Yane Yanev, announced Wednesday that his party has found a discrepancy in the number of votes for Sirakov and insisted on runoff.

“We do not dispute the GERB candidate’s first position, only his electing in the first round,” Yanev said.

“We have processed the documents for all 125 sectional reports and have found a discrepancy in 3 863 votes. This means that if the discrepancy we have found is true, Nikolay Sirakov from GERB was not going to be elected in the first round. With 1 201 less than the announced 9 330 votes, he had to go to a runoff,” Yanev said.

The voting activity in Gabrovo was only 25.55%, which means that 1/4 of the people cast their vote.

The early mayor elections in Gabrovo had to be held after the previously elected mayor of the city Tomislav Donchev was appointed minister in charge of EU funds absorption in the Borisov government in March 2010.

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