Bobov Dol Prisoners Want Ex Secret Agent for Bulgarian President

Former DANS employee and controversial businessman Alexei Petrov has scored a surprise victory at the Bobov Dol prison. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian controversial businessman, former secret agent and alleged crime boss Alexei Petrov won the presidential vote at the Bobovdol prison.

Out of 41 prisoners entitled to vote, 36 cast ballots, 19 of which supported Alexei Petrov, 8 went for former EU Commissioner and independent runner Meglena Kuneva, 3 for socialist candidate Ivaylo Kalfin and 1 for Rosen Plevneliev, the nominee of center-right ruling party GERB.

Local elections were not held in the prison, Dnevnik daily reported.

Voter turnout at the Bobov Dol municipality in Southwestern Bulgaria was estimated at 64%.

According to pollsters, the former employee of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) won 1% of the votes cast at the October 23 elections.

"Today we witnessed what I call BoykoBorisov-isms, i.e. manipulations, fear, bags full of ballots, bribed staff of entire polling stations," said Petrov, adding that all candidates ranked after the winner had to discuss the option of requesting a cancellation of the elections.

With 57.32% of the protocols from sectional electoral commissions processed, Sunday's vote brings GERB's presidential ticket 39.67% of the votes, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) gets 29.75% and the independent runners Kuneva-Hrisov have 14.09%.

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