Bulgaria Braces for Tight Presidential Contest

Over 6.8 million Bulgarians have a right to vote for a new President on Sunday, as well as taking part in a three-question referendum, while who will win the presidential race is unclear.

Guards in front of the office of the Bulgarian President in Sofia. Photo: yeowatzup/Flickr

Polling stations will be open till 8pm on Sunday in Bulgaria, where over 6,834,000 citizens are entitled to cast a ballot for a new President in an unexpectedly knife-edge race.

Together with the presidential vote, which was made mandatory this spring, Bulgarians will also have the right to take part in a three-question referendum, initiated by one of Bulgaria’s most popular TV hosts, Slavi Trifonov, with the aim of shaking up the political system.

Pollsters seem certain that Bulgaria’s sixth president since the democratic changes made in 1991 will not be chosen in the first round on Sunday, but in the second one, on November 13.

The latest data of the polling agency Alpha Research, released on November 4, showed that the two main rivals for the presidential post, Tsetska Tsacheva, nominated by Bulgaria’s largest party, the centre right GERB, and Rumen Radev, candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, are runing neck and neck with the support of 26.3 and 22.5 per cent of the vote respectively.

Krasimir Karakachanov, nominated by a coalition of nationalist parties, VMRO, the National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria, or NFSB, and ATAKA, has made the biggest gain, attracting over 12 per cent of the votes, as compared to only 8.7 per cent in October.

He is followed by the popular businessman Veselin Mareshki, owner of a chain of pharmacies and petrol station, who was supported by 7.1 of participants in polls.

Controversial ex-prime minister Plamen Oresharski, who was forced to resign in 2014 after a year of street rallies against his government, has attracted 6.9 per cent of the voters after the ethnic-Turkish dominated party, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF, declared support for him in October.

The polling agencies are far from unanimous on who will win the election in the second round, with some giving the lead to Tsacheva and others to the ex-air force chief Radev.

Alpha Research has estimated a high turnout of around 69 per cent in the presidential elections.

A record number of Bulgarians living abroad have declared they will take part in the election – just over 34,000, with the greatest number of registrations from the UK, Turkey, Germany and the US.

The majority of Bulgarians also plan to take part in Sunday’s referendum, which will ask three questions: about introducing mandatory voting – already in effect since May – the introduction of majoritarian system to elect MPs, and slashing subsidies for political parties to 1 lev – around 0.5 euros – per vote won.

While most Bulgarians seem enthusiastic about being given an opportunity to directly influence political life and plan to vote “yes” at the referendum, activists and experts have dismissed it as a populist measure whose main effect will be to consolidate the position of the big established parties at the expense of the rest.