Bulgaria Ruling Party Wins in Plovdiv after Dramatically Close Call - Exit Polls

Plovdiv, the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, witnessed a heated neck-to-neck battle for the mayoral post in the run-off elections on Sunday, which eventually led to the victory of the ruling party candidate, according to exit poll results.

Ivan Totev, current district governor, nominated by the ruling center-right party GERB, managed to unseat incumbent mayor Slavcho Atanasov, who received 49% of the votes against his rival's 51%, the first exit polls show.

In the first round Atanasov garnered just 27.7.% of the votes against his rival's 35.6%.

For the run-off Totev's bid was supported by the right-wing Blue Coalition and the Green party.

He has promised there will be no purge in the municipality and mass dismissals after he comes into office.

"I want to reassure all the employees in the administration of the Municipality of Plovdiv that rumors are groundless, seek political gains and have nothing to do with reality. Our top priority is to change the political model of governance in the municipality," Totev said in between the two rounds.

"GERB is a party, which seeks constructive dialogue with everyone and will use the potential, experience and capabilities of each employee for the sake of the city's development."

The defeated Slavcho Atanasov was nominated by the alternative nationalist part VMRO-NIE and was supported by the centrist right-wing United Democratic Forces and the United Agrarians. Despite expectations that Atanasov will clinch a victory as early as in the first round, he was supported by no more than 27.7% of the votes.

Despite his lacklustre result at the first round of the elections, Atanasov was backed for the runoff, by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the former communists, much to the disappointment of the right-leaning voters. Interestingly his bid was also backed by the right-wing United Democratic Forces and ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

Right after the results from the first round emerged Atanasov was unexpectedly dealt a heavy blow – he was rushed to a local hospital and underwent a surgery of acute appendicitis with local peritonitis. The rival candidate Ivan Totev turned down the invitation for holding last round of debates before the runoff in the local hospital and just wished him speedy recovery. This practically spelled the end of the pre-election campaign in the city.

Plovdiv, located in southern Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River, has a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011.

Seventeen candidates vied for the mayoral post in the city, most of whom failed runners from previous elections. Nearly 6 000 ballots were declared invalid at the first round.

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