Sofia (AFP) – Bulgarian Prime Minister Bokyo Borisov suffered an embarrassing setback in the first round of presidential elections Sunday, with exit polls suggesting his candidate fell short of the top spot.
Tsetska Tsacheva won 22.5-23.5 percent of the vote, coming second behind Rumen Radev, on 24.0-26.7 percent, the candidate of the opposition Socialists seen as more sympathetic to Russia, the polls showed.
The result, if confirmed, sets up a tight runoff contest on November 13 between Tsacheva, 58, who is speaker of parliament, and former air force commander and ace MiG pilot Radev, 53.
The centre-right Borisov, 57, had said before the election that if Tsacheva failed to come first in the first round, he would call early elections.
It was unclear late Sunday whether he would follow through on this threat, with official results not due until Monday. He may wait until after the second round next Sunday.
New elections could plunge the EU’s poorest and arguably most corrupt country — the average monthly salary is just 480 euros ($535) — into renewed political turmoil.
Burly former bodyguard and police chief Borisov, 57, has injected some much-needed stability into Bulgaria since becoming premier for the second time in late 2014.
Prior to that the south-eastern European country went through a year and a half of upheaval involving mass protests and several elections.
But along with a failure to implement major reforms, Borisov appears to have miscalculated badly in putting forward the straight-laced Tsacheva to become president, experts said.
“We saw a major dip in support for (Borisov’s party) GERB in the big cities, and a year after local elections where GERB did very well,” Boryana Dimitrova from pollster Alpha Research said.
“This is explained by the personality of the candidate and by a campaign that targeted smaller towns,” Dimitrova told AFP. “The door has been opened for elections.”
– East or West? –
The job of Bulgarian president is largely ceremonial but he or she is still a respected figure who chooses some top officials and can appoint technocrat governments in a crisis.
And for a country forever walking the East-West tightrope, both Moscow and Brussels will be watching closely to see whether the new president might tilt the ex-communist country more into the Russian or the Western orbit.
NATO member Bulgaria last September angered Moscow by banning Russian supply flights to Syria from using its airspace.
Outgoing president Rosen Pleneviev has been outspoken in his criticism of Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
But at the same time Bulgaria’s economy is hugely reliant on Russia, particularly in gas, and the two have deep historical and cultural ties. In 2010 Borisov gave Putin a puppy.
Radev told local radio in a recent interview: “We have lost a lot by declaring Russia more or less an enemy.”
In addition he has called for EU sanctions on Russia, imposed because of Ukraine, to be lifted — a position shared by Tsacheva until Borisov called her back into line.
Radev has also said however that “a necessary improvement in relations with Russia doesn’t mean a retreat from Euro-Atlantic values.”
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