Georgi Kadiev was officially elected as Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) candidate for mayor of Sofia in the upcoming special elections on November 15 2009, Bulgarian news agency Focus said.

At a meeting of the BSP's Sofia organisation, Kadiev got 159 votes in favour of his nomination. One person voted against and three abstained.

Kadiev's election was hardly a surprise since he was the only one who applied to be the BSP candidate in Sofia although at first there were 13 people who were proposed for the post.

In an effort to show the BSP as a transparent party, its Sofia unit decided to hold an internal election for the party’s mayoral candidate with Kadiev one of 13 nominations put forward by BSP supporters.

What would have been the first internal BSP elections, however, failed after Kadiev was the only one to file his papers on time, making him in effect the only candidate.

In his previous statements, Kadiev made it clear that he did not want the support of BSP leader Sergei Stansihev.

Kadiev will face Education Minister Yordanka Fandukova who was nominated by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, leader of the ruling Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian).

Fadukova is described as the certain winner of the elections because of the popularity of Borissov who was Sofia mayor, twice elected to the post before in July 2009 achieving a decisive victory in the parliamentary elections and consigning the BSP to the status of an opposition party.

Fandukova was one of Borissov's deputy mayors. She already got the support of one of several small parties, among them a minority right-wing party in Parliament, the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria.