Some won by not losing. Some gained in spite of losing. And some clearly lost. That’s the sum of the first round of Bulgaria’s presidential elections, held on November 6.
Figures from the Central Election Commission, with close to all ballots counted, showed Bulgarian Socialist Party-backed candidate Roumen Radev with about 27.6 per cent and GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva at about 24.66 per cent, a gap slightly wider than some exit polls on election night had suggested.
Out of the original field of 21 registered candidates, these two go to the runoff on November 13.
Among those who have won out of this is BSP leader Kornelia Ninova, elected to that post in May 2016. Whatever happens at the second round, the fact that Radev came out with the most votes at the first round probably will secure Ninova’s tenure of the party leadership. She has outdone the ill-fated months of her predecessor Mihail Mikov, and the BSP now has less of the whiff of failure that grew with the long years that Sergei Stanishev was its leader.
It is also a gain for her considering the initial debacle around the nominatio
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