BSP VS GERB
Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov’s party Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) would be the Bulgarian Socialist Party’s (BSP) main rival in the October 28 municipal elections, BSP leader and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said on September 25 at a BSP national summit in Sofia. Behind the GERB nominees’ ambitions were “personal, economic or other interests", Stanishev said. Newly formed “business and local parties would take part in the elections and would try to buy votes and to serve certain corporative interests", he said. “Parties should tell people what was possible and what was not. I would oppose xenophobes, populism, demagogy and extreme nationalism,” Stanishev said. He said that the BSP would not lead a “dirty war during the campaign”.

GERB VS BSP
The Bulgarian Socialist Party together with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms were the main rivals of GERB in the elections, GERB chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov told party members on September 24. GERB’s motto for the elections will be Open Government.

ELECTION MONEY
The October 28 municipal elections will cost about 18.5 million leva, State Administration Minister Nikolai Vassilev said. “The amount of the funding is reasonable – it is not enormous and extravagant, but at the same time it is sufficient to hold normal elections,” Vassilev told reporters on September 25.

PREDICTIONS
According to respected mathematician and former deputy chairperson of the Central Election Committee Professor Mihail Konstantinov, current Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov will have no problem reaching the second round in the elections. “I expect that right-wing candidate Martin Zaimov will meet Borissov on the second round,” Konstantinov said. However, if Bulgaria Socialist Party candidate Brigo Asparouhov manages to reach the second round, Borissov’s victory will be guaranteed, Konstantinov said.

APPETITE FOR SOFIA
A total of 44 candidates will stand for Sofia mayor, according to predictions of the Central Election Committee (CEC). “We have registered 40 parties so far for the Sofia elections and we expect the number of nominees to reach 44,” Velislava Krasteva, spokesperson of CEC said.