Bulgarian Socialist Party’s (BSP) nominee for Sofia mayor was actually second, not third, according to the BSP Sofia structure leader Roumen Ovcharov.

“The electoral loss in Sofia, which seemed serious last night, today turned out to be not that severe,” Ovcharov said at a news conference.

Ovcharov quoted results from the Central Election Committee, showing that BSP nominee Brigo Asparouhov won 16.54 per cent of the votes, while United Democratic Forces (UDF) and Democrats for Strong Bulgaria’s (DSB) nominee Matrin Zaimov won 15.71 per cent, Focus news agency reported.

The preliminary data showed that Zaimov was second and Asparouhov, third.

Ovcharov said that BSP’s Sofia organisation showed better results than the BSP organisations in cities like Bourgas and Varna.

The independent nominee Kiril Iordanov, supported by BSP and the Movement for Rights and Freedom (MRF) won the elections in Varna. In Bourgas Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (known in Bulgarian as GERB) and the ultra-nationalist movement Ataka candidates, Dimitar Nikolov and Valeri Simeonov, would run for the mayor post on the second round of the elections.

BSP Sofia’s main goal would be to win the nine regional mayor posts, for which BSP would compete with GERB in the second election round, Ovcharov said.