Feeling confident after second-round municipal elections in cities and towns in Bulgaria appeared to confirm his party’s political ascendancy, Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov called for the country to hold parliamentary elections ahead of schedule.

Interviewed by Bulgarian National Television, Borissov, informal leader of the party formed around him – the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria – said that it was anomalous that his party had done the best in the 2007 municipal and European Parliament elections, yet had no seats in Parliament.

The party was formally constituted in 2006, more than a year after Bulgaria held parliamentary elections in 2005.
In the first round of municipal elections on October 28, Borissov won re-election as mayor of Sofia outright, without needing to go a second round. His party’s candidate won in Plovdiv, traditionally regarded as Bulgaria’s second city.
“The large cities are all ours,” said Borissov.

In the runoffs on November 4, Borissov’s party beat off a challenge by an ultra-nationalist rival to win in the Black Sea city of Bourgas. Its candidates also won in Sliven, Yambol, Vidin and Vratsa, the last long having been a stronghold of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP).
The BSP, the majority partner in the current governing national coalition Cabinet, won in Blagoevgrad – traditionally a BSP stronghold – and in the Danubian city of Rousse, where the BSP candidate got about 57 per cent, beating Borissov’s party. It also won in Gabrovo, Pernik, Haskovo and a BSP-backed nominally independent candidate won in Turgovishte. The BSP has argued since the first round that numerically, it got more votes nationally and had more mayors than Borissov’s party.

Centre-right candidates not from Borissov’s party but from the Union of Democratic Forces-Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria election alliance came out top in Kyustendil and Veliko Turnovo. In Stara Zagora, rival candidates from Borissov’s party and from the BSP ended too close to call, with exit polls placing them within less than a per cent of each other, with some polls placing Borissov’s party candidate ahead.

In Sofia, which held run-off elections for a clutch of regional mayors, the centre-right Alliance for Sofia (in effect, a working alliance between the Union of Democratic Forces and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria) won in the Oborishte, Lozenets, Vitosha and Sredets neighbourhoods. Elsewhere, in the neighbourhoods of Krasno Selo and Triaditsa, the results were said to be close and no winner had been announced by 9pm on November 4.

After controversy surrounded widespread allegations of vote-buying in the first round, authorities said ahead of the second-round elections that police were being deployed to take a tougher line. Bulgarian news agency BTA reported security police deputy chief Emil Vladimirov as saying that seven people had been arrested on November in connection with alleged vote-buying. A further 70 people had been cautioned that they were suspected of vote-buying. Media reports said that most frequently it was Bulgarians of Roma origin, who are the country’s most marginalised community and furthest removed from the formal economy, who were targeted by vote-buyers.

There were also complaints of illegal canvassing on November 3, Bulgaria’s “day of contemplation” ahead of the elections, during which political activity is banned.

Exit polls also indicated that the second round turnout was about 25 per cent lower than in the same cities and towns in the first round. Gallup polling agency gave the second-round turnout as being about 35 per cent.

On November 4, the second-round elections involved voters being asked to choose mayors of 162 municipalities, 33 boroughs and 1243 mayoralties, BTA reported.

BSP leader and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev told a news conference that, while official second-round results were not yet in, the BSP had done well in winning a number of cities and towns. He said that the elections had been held in an environment unusual in Bulgaria’s post-communist democracy, including the prolonged strike by teachers for higher salaries, and the vote-buying.

Simeon Saxe-Coburg, leader of the National Movement for Stability and Progress (formerly the National Movement Simeon II), whose party was routed in these elections as party of a continued downward trend that began after the party was ousted in the 2005 elections -- although it continues to form part of the governing coalition -- said that it was inappropriate to extrapolate the outcome of possible parliamentary elections from the results of municipal elections. He declined to speculate on a future coalition national government, beyond saying it could be wider in its representation. He said that his party was "dynamic and modern" and was open to change.