Bulgaria Ruling Party Retakes Capital in Local Elections

Yordanka Fandakova, acting mayor of Sofia and nominee of the ruling GERB party, won the second round of local elections in the Bulgarian capital against the protest candidate and former ombudsperson Maya Manolova on Sunday.

Taking exactly 50 per cent of the votes compared to Manolova's 45.1 per cent - about 5 per cent voted: "I do not support anyone" - she is set to become the longest-serving head of Bulgaria's largest city and serve a fourth mandate.

"People expect work but also change," Fandakova said on Sunday when the preliminary results showed her making serious headway. She thanked Sofians, adding that they had proved to be "free people who are not susceptible to suggestions [of her political opponents]".

The mayoral race in Sofia was heavily contested for the first time in 14 years, as dissatisfaction with poor repair work, bad air quality during winter and persistent underdevelopment of public infrastructure, such as kindergartens and public transport, grew in recent months.

Manolova, of the main opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, gathered support from various political and civic circles but failed to win over the traditionally anti-BSP electorate in Sofia.

The centrist Democratic Bulgaria party, however, made major gains in the district races in the capital, taking eight of 12 seats from GERB, with two more to be announced.

Apart from the key vote in Sofia, the balance of power tilted only slightly against GERB in the local elections across the country. The party won mayoral seats in 15 of the 28 regional cities and has backed the winners in two other towns, Montana and Kyustendil.

It saw a slight fall in support compared to the results of the last local elections in 2015, when it won 22 cities by itself,...