Final Showdown in Bulgaria's 5th Ever Presidential Elections

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

Bulgarians are casting their ballot Sunday in the second round of the 5th presidential elections in their country's history, picking between Rosen Plevneliev, the candidate of the ruling center-right party GERB and PM Boyko Borisov, and Ivaylo Kalfin, runner of the Socialist Party.

The presidential vote is being held together with the second round of local, i.e. mayoral votes in 172 out of Bulgaria's 264 municipalities, including 18 out of the 27 district capitals.

The 2011 elections mark the first time ever that Bulgaria holds presidential and mayoral elections on one and the same day.

The second and constitutionally last term in office of Bulgaria's outgoing President Georgi Parvanov, a former Socialist Party leader, expires in January 2012.

After eighteen candidates ran for President in the first round of the elections a week earlier, none of them managed to clinch the position by scoring more than 50% of the votes.

In a first round with a voter turnout of 51.82%, which was marred by chaotic organization of the electoral process, especially in Sofia, and by numerous vote-buying reports, GERB's Rosen Plevneliev received 40,11% of the votes vs. 28,96%. for Ivaylo Kalfin.

In absolute terms, Plevneliev, the Regional Development Minister in Borisov's government in 2009-2011, and his running mate Margarita Popova got 1 349 380 votes, and BSP's Ivaylo Kalfin, a Member of the European Parliament and former Foreign Minister in 2005-2009, and his running mate, popular actor Stefan Danailov received 974 300.

A third major bidder, former EU Commissioner for consumer protection Meglena Kuneva won 14%, or more than 400 000 votes.

According to all major political analysts it is highly unlikely, though not technically impossible, that Kalfin, the runner-up in the first round, will overcome Plevneliev's lead of 11%, or 375 000 votes.

Kalfin did get the endorsement of Ahmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish party DPS (Movement for Rights and Freedoms); however, about two-thirds of the votes who backed the third most popular candidate Meglena Kuneva are expected to vote for Plevneliev.

Public opinion polls have predicted that the voter turnout in the run-off will be slightly slower than it was a week ago.

Sunday's Election day started at 6 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. local time. The voter enters the polling booth after receiving a sealed integral ballot from a member of the commission, tick the check box next to the candidate preferred, wraps the ballot and thus concealing the vote hands it over to a member of the commission, who puts a second seal. Next the voter casts the ballot into the polling box and signs in the electoral list.

More than 6 million people are eligible to vote in about 11,400 polling sections across the country. The vote of Bulgarians living abroad is more restricted as at least 100 voters were required for one booth to be opened.

Preliminary results will be available 90 minutes after the end of Election Day.

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