Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev again refused to congratulate ruling party GERB for its presidential election win, a sentiment echoed at the socialist party's election night news conference on October 30 by the party's nominee Ivailo Kalfin.

Unlike Stanishev, however, Kalfin congratulated his rival in the run-off, Rossen Plevneliev, although the erstwhile socialist MEP did not resist the temptation to damn the putative president-elect with faint praise.

"Mr Plevneliev was elected with the fewest number of votes in the past 22 years. I hope that [with running mate Margarita Popova] they can unite the nation and lead the nation," Kalfin said.

"The civil society control on the work of the president and vice president will be extremely stringent and I will contribute to ensure that these checks are effective and transparent," he said. "I cannot congratulate the ruling party for the way the elections were held. In 22 years, there have not been worse elections."

Stanishev again, as he did earlier in the night in front of the Election Centre in the National Palace of Culture (NDK), attempted to take the higher moral ground.

"For the first time in 20 years, we defended a greater cause [in these elections], the cause of democracy. This battle is not over, we will continue our policy of opposing authoritarianism, fear and anti-social policies."

"We were witness to an unprecedented manipulation of public opinion and the free will of Bulgarian citizens. GERB made these elections with enormous funding, police pressure and threats; these elections were not free, fair or democratic. This must not be forgotten; that would be a crime against the future and the right to choose freely," he said.

Despite the accusations of vote-buying levelled at the ruling party, the socialists did not outright call for the invalidation of the elections.

"I don't want to go into legal interpretations, but after the results are announced, we will analyse the situation and make a decision in that sense," Stanishev said.

"Nevertheless, GERB's plan of a triumphal march has failed both in presidential and local elections," he said.

According to Stanishev, the socialists reached beyond their hard-core supporters and "changed the political landscape", making the party the clearly-recognised alternative to the Government. He claimed wins in mayoral races in 91 of 264 of Bulgaria's municipalities, but conceded that GERB took more urban areas than the socialists.