New Mayor in Sofia

Bulgaria's Ruling Party Candidate Fandakova Elected Sofia Mayor in Landslide - Exit Poll

Yordanka Fandakova (left) has been elected to succeed Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov (right), as the Mayor of the capital Sofia. Fandakova's election is widely believed to have resulted from Borisov's active endorsement. Photo by BGNES

Yordanka Fandakova, the candidate of Bulgaria's ruling party GERB and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, has been elected the new Mayor of the capital Sofia in Sunday's by-elections.

More information about Yordanka Fandakova is available HERE.

Fandakova, who is currently the Education Minister in the GERB government, has been elected in a landslide, according to the exit poll of Gallup International. In addition to Borisov's GERB, she has also been backed by the nationalist Ataka party and the rightist Blue Coalition.

Despite the record low voter turnout - 21,4%, Fandakova has won in the first round, and so no runoff will be held. The Sofia Mayor by-elections have been widely regarded as a race with clear outcome from the very beginning due to the huge popularity and public support for Prime Minister Borisov and the GERB party.

The first exit poll results show that Fandakova, who is widely seen as a protege of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, has won 65,6% of the cast votes.

Georgi Kadiev, the candidate of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, known as the "red yuppie", who has been seen as Fandakova's only serious competitor, has remained second with 26,5 % of the votes.

All other candidates have received a total of 7,9%.

With her election Sunday, Fandakova has become the first woman to be Mayor of Sofia, a fact described as an advantage by Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov.

The Bulgarian capital Sofia had to hold Mayor by-elections as former Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov became Prime Minister after his party GERB won overwhelmingly the July 2009 Parliamentary Elections.

Borisov was himself first elected in by-elections in 2005, and then reelected at the regular elections in 2007. Under his administration in 2005-2009, Fandakova served as a Deputy Mayor of Sofia in charge of education, youth, culture, and science. She has been Minister of Education since July 2009.