Presidential Election Socialist-Backed Candidate Wins in Bulgaria's Capital for 1st Time

Rumen Radev, the candidate backed by the biggest opposition party BSP. File photo, BGNES

For the first time in Bulgaria's post-communist history, a socialist-backed candidate has fared better in the capital Sofia than all other contenders in an election, election data shows.

Rumen Radev, the candidate supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) whose running mate is a long-time party member, has garnered 25.77% of the vote, with 99.32% of ballot protocols counted.

He is followed by the main ruling party GERB's nominee, Tsetska Tsacheva, who is also second nationally.

Third comes the Reformist Bloc's Traycho Traykov, at 17.13%, who hoped to benefit from a strong vote in the Bulgarian capital.

Krasimir Karakachanov, the nationalsit candidate who came third in the race, has slumped to the fourth spot in Sofia.

Sofia has been traditionally seen as a strong region for the right-wing and conservative parties that emerged after the democratic changes and that slam all left-of-center candidates as "communist" and tied to tha Soviet-era elite, whose hair the BSP is, being a successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP) that ruled Bulgaria during the Cold war.