Bulgarians are going to the polls today for the second round of the presidential election, tired of widespread corruption in the poorest EU Member State amid rising energy costs and a high death toll from the new coronavirus pandemic.
Outgoing President Rumen Radev, 58, a proponent of change in the country that aims to clean up its image as the most corrupt country in the EU, has emerged as the frontrunner for renewing his five-year presidency after securing 49. 5% in the first round of the presidential election held on November 14.
His opponent is 58-year-old rector of Sofia University Anastas Gertzhikov, who secured 22.8% of the vote in the first round of last week’s presidential election and is backed by Gerb, the conservative party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who April.
The role of the president is largely ceremonial, but comes to the fore in times of political crisis, when the head of state can appoint interim governments. The presidency also offers a platform for influencing public opinion.
Radev became popular for his outspoken support for the mass protests against corruption and the Borisov government in 2020, as well as for appointing interim governments that brought to light allegedly dark public procurement contracts of the former prime minister’s last government. Borisov denies any irregularity.
A new anti-corruption party, Let’s Continue Change (PP), made up of two Harvard-educated businessmen whom Radev appointed as caretakers in May, won last week’s parliamentary election.
Radev is backed by Borisov’s political opponents – the PP, the Socialists and the anti-elite ITN party, which, along with another anti-corruption faction, are in talks to form a government.
“Radev is the favorite, but a lot will depend on whether his supporters go to the polls,” said political analyst Daniel Smilov at the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia.
Gertzhikov, a respected professor of Ancient and Medieval Literature, accuses Radev of turning Bulgarians against each other and has vowed to unite the nation, which suffers from high death rates from COVID-19, which is among the highest in the world. EU, and rising energy costs.
Gertzhikov is a strong supporter of Bulgaria’s Western alliance, a NATO member, which has campaigned for improved business opportunities and advocated for judicial reforms aimed at improving the rule of law in the country of about 7 million people.
Radev, who campaigned in 2016 for the lifting of Western sanctions on Russia, says Bulgaria should maintain realistic ties with Moscow and should not view it as an enemy, mainly because of its close historical and cultural ties. .
His comments that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, was “Russian today”, sparked protests from Kiev.
The polls opened at 07:00 local time and Greek time and will close at 20:00, when the first results of the exit polls are expected to be announced.
The winner will take office on January 22 for a five-year term.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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Source From: Capital
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