Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s party the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (known as GERB) will nominate its own candidate to be mayor of Sofia, Bulgarian media reports on August 21 2009 quoted Borissov as saying.
 
He squelched speculation that GERB’s candidate would be Martin Zaimov, who was beaten into second place by Borissov in Sofia’s previous mayoral elections.
 
Borissov twice won election as mayor of Sofia before stepping down when he was elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
 
At the time, Zaimov stood as the joint candidate of the centre-right Union of Democratic Forces and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, a working arrangement that proved to be the precursor of the Blue Coalition that so far has a generally co-operative – with some ups and downs – relationship with Borissov’s GERB.
 
Earlier in August 2009, Zaimov was reported as indicating willingness to have another go at being elected mayor of Sofia if he would get the backing of GERB. Media reports have said that the Blue Coalition will nominate its own mayoral candidate.
 
This means that the scenario in the centre- to right-wing spectrum in the mayoral elections in Sofia could be similar to that in the July 2009 national parliamentary elections, with various parties and coalitions contesting the race individually without forming a broad coalition.
 
It is widely perceived that GERB will still be riding its current wave of popularity around mid-November and its candidate is certain to be ushered on to the mayor’s chair.
 
If GERB nominated a donkey to be mayor of Sofia, the beast would be elected, Mediana polling agency Kolyo Kolev was quoted as saying by Bulgarian news agency Focus on August 19.
 
Given the euphoria around Borissov’s party, the qualities or otherwise of his party’s candidate would make no difference, Kolev said.
 
Elsewhere in the spectrum of politics and mammals, Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Sergei Stanishev, who led his party to defeat in the parliamentary elections – shedding its place as majority partner in the governing coalition to end up trailing a poor second to Borissov’s party – has rejected reports that he will stand as the Socialist candidate to be mayor of Sofia.
 
After the 1996/97 financial and economic meltdown in Bulgaria over which a Socialist government presided, no BSP candidate has been elected mayor of Sofia. Right-winger Stefan Sofiyanski held the post from 1995 to 2005, leaving when he was elected an MP and creating the vacancy that Borissov occupied.
 
Most observers believed that for Stanishev to have accepted being his party’s candidate for mayor of Sofia would have been certain political suicide, especially given that rebels in the party are publicly challenging his place as leader after the July election results.
 
Stanishev was quoted as saying that his personal priority now was to "reform and modernise" the BSP after its election defeat. The BSP should nominate a "broader figure" rather than a partisan candidate, he said.
 
Pending the election, Sofia is in the stewardship of acting mayor Minko Gerdjikov, who stood as a right-wing candidate in 2005 and, although defeated by Borissov, was offered and accepted the post of deputy mayor.