Runner-Up to Contest Results of Mayoral Run-Off in Bulgaria's Varna

Hristo Bozov, who came in second in Sunday's runoff election for Mayor of the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna, vowed on Monday to contest the elections result.

Speaking on Nova TV, Bozov pledged to take the necessary steps to contest the vote, immediately after the official runoff results were announced by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC).

Bozov insisted that 59 out of 385 protocols of sectional electoral commissions had flaws, thereby rendering the votes of Varna citizens largely meaningless.

He complained about flagrantly flawed election papers and claimed that he had been the victim of a smear campaign.

Ivan Portnih, the candidate of Bulgaria's former ruling center-right party GERB, won the mayoral elections with 51.41 % of the votes, while  ex Deputy Mayor of Varna Hristo Bozov, nominee of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, was backed by 48, 59 %.

Meanwhile, in an interview for Monday's morning broadcast of the Bulgarian National Television, BSP MP Anton Kutev declined to specify whether the election results would be challenged, stressing that the low voter turnout was a big problem.

Adapted from novinite.com