8 GERB MPs Leave Bulgarian Parliament over Mayor Wins

Bulgaria's Parliament will soon have eight new MPs to replace those from the ruling GERB party, who were successful in securing mayoral seats in the local elections. File photo

Eight Members of the Parliament from the ruling, center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) have been elected mayors and will free eight parliamentary seats.

According to official results from the Sunday local elections runoff, another seven GERB MPs were unsuccessful in their battle to become mayors.

In the majority of cases, the ruling party's MPs have lost by a very narrow margin. The most dramatic battle was in the western city of Pernik where GERB's Irena Sokolova was the winner, according to exit polls, but official results showed she is behind Rositsa Yanakieva, incumbent mayor, endorsed by the opposition, left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), who got close to 53% of the votes.

In the town of Samokov, GERB's Tsvetan Sichanov got 49.31% against Vladimir Georgiev from BSP.

In Gotse Delchev, hometown of GERB candidate and president-elect, Rosen Plevneliev, GERB's Georgi Andonov with 48.95% lost to Vladimir Moskov from BSP with 51.05%.

An MP from the ruling party also lost in Velingrad – Angel Daskalov got 43.85% of the ballots, compared to independent, incumbent mayor, Ivan Lebanov with 56.14%.

GERB's Vladimir Toshev lost in Vidin, Svetomir Mihaylov – in Balchik, and Vyara Petrova lost Karnobat as early as the first round on October 23.

From the winners, one of the most convincing bids turned out to be of one of the youngest GERB MPs, Zhivko Todorov, who got 67.12% of the vote in the city of Stara Zagora.

Ivan Aleksiev was elected mayor of the town of Pomorie with 62.6%; Atanas Kambitov won in the city of Blagoevgrad with 60.18%.

In the town of Panagyurishte, Nikola Belishki got 56.01%; in the town of Bansko, Georgi Ikonomov ended with 52.73%; Ivan Ivanov is mayor-elect of the town of Sevlievo with 52.38%, and in Dimitrovgrad, Ivo Dimov got 53.26%

One of the most significant GERB victories was registered in the city of Smolyan where Nikolay Melemov won against long-time BSP mayor, Dora Yankova with 52.92% of the votes.

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