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2023 Sofia mayoral election

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Mayoral election in Sofia
2023 Sofia mayoral elections
← 2019 29 October 2023 (first round)
5 November 2023 (runoff)
2027 →
Turnout36.04% (first round) Decrease6.78 pp
34.64% (runoff) Decrease5.38 pp
  Васил Терзиев (cropped).jpg Ваня Григорова.jpg Anton Hekimyan (cropped).jpg
Candidate Vasil Terziev Vanya Grigorova Anton Hekimyan
Party PP–DBSS BSPzB GERB—SDS
First round 119,121
31.80%
80,875
21.59%
66,792
17.83%
Runoff 175,044
48.20%
170,258
46.89%
Eliminated

  Deyan Nikolov (49NS).png Vili Lilkov.jpg Ivaylo Vulchev (45NS).png
Candidate Deyan Nikolov Vili Lilkov Ivaylo Vulchev
Party Revival Blue Sofia ITN
First round 29,052
7.76%
21,326
5.69%
11,861
3.17%
Runoff Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated

Mayor before election

Yordanka Fandakova
GERB

Elected mayor

Vasil Terziev
PP-DBSpasi Sofia

The 2023 Sofia mayoral election was held on 29 October 2023, during the 2023 Bulgarian local elections, to elect the next mayor of Sofia.

Background

See also: 2019 Bulgarian local elections

For the past 14 years (since 2009), the mayor of Sofia has been Yordanka Fandakova, from the party GERB.

Fandakova served four terms, including three full terms, as mayor of Sofia, becoming the first woman to serve in the position and the longest serving mayor of Sofia.

During Fandakova's time in office, the public transportation system has been expanded, in particular with a number of projects aimed at expanding the Sofia metro. Additionally, Fandakova has taken credit for initiating the project "Green Sofia", which is supposed to support initiatives meant to make Sofia more environmentally friendly.

However, Fandakova's tenure as mayor has also come under scrutiny. Fandakova has been accused of allowing corruption in new construction projects. Specifically, critics of Fandakova have identified the construction of the new metro lines as a source of corruption, often leading to inefficient results.

Calls for Fandakova to resign increased in the period between 2018 and 2019, with her vice-mayor, Evgeni Krusev, resigning his position due to mismanagement of repairs in the "Grafa" district. However, Fandakova herself refused to resign, and sought a third term as Mayor in the 2019 Sofia Mayoral Elections. Fandakova faced a challenge in the 2019 elections, from BSP-supported independent, Maya Manolova, VMRO candidate Dzhambanski and leader of the civic organisation Spasi Sofia, Boris Bonev, as well as other candidates. According to some polls, Maya Manolova was even in the lead, ahead of the incumbent. Fandakova ended up narrowly defeating Manalova in the second round, although Manolova has claimed that election fraud took place, and called for a recount.

Candidates

Every Bulgarian citizen older than 18 and who is registered in Sofia City is allowed to run for the position of mayor of Sofia.

Announced and Registered

Candidate name, age,
political party
Political offices Endorsing parties Campaign announcement
Vasil Terziev (46)
PP–DB
Vasil Terziev
  • Entrepreneur, founder of the Software Company, Telerik
27 June 2023
Deyan Nikolov (34)
Revival
4 July 2023
Vili Lilkov (69)
Independent
Vili Lilkov 16 July 2023
Vanya Grigorova (46)
Independent
  • Economist advisor the chairman of the trade union "Podkrepa"
25 August 2023
Radostin Vasilev
(39)
Independent
Radostin Vasilev
  • Member of the Bulgarian National Assembly (2021-2024)
  • Strong Bulgaria
5th September 2023
Mariya Koleva
(63)
Pravoto
  • Leader of Pravoto (2019–present)
  • Pravoto
6 September 2023
Karlos Kontrera
(37)
VMRO
17th September 2023
Alexander Tomov
(70)
BSDE
  • Member of the 7th Grand National Assembly (1990-1991)
  • Member of the 38th and 40th National Assembly (1994-2001)
  • Leader of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party "Euro-Left" (2003-)
17 September 2023
Krasimir Stoychev
(69)
Independent
  • Owner of the mobile phone operator "Citron" (1992-1997)
  • Consultant for the development of Green Energy in Bulgaria
20 September 2023
Simeon Ananiev
(69)
Independent
  • Acting head of the "Bulgarian Railroad Association" (2006-2010)
  • Chairman of the "Green Transport" Organization
19 September 2023
Ivaylo Valchev
(52)
ITN
  • Member of the Bulgarian National Assembly (2022-present)
21st September 2023
Anton Hekimyan
(40)
Independent
  • Director of the BTV news and sports section (2020-2023)
21 September 2023
Violeta Komitova
(67)
Bulgarian Rise
27 September 2023
Svetoslav Vitkov
(67)
People's Voice
27 September 2023
Asen Angelov
(46)
Independent
  • Acting Head of the Bulgarian Employment Agency (2005-2010)
  • Administrative Secretary of the government owned "Agrarian Fund" (2013-2015)
28 September 2023
Mazhd Algafari
(57)
Independent
  • Journalist
28 September 2023
Petar Klisarov
(56)
Direct Democracy
  • Leader of the party "Direct Democracy" (2014-)
28 September 2023
Kamen Dyulgerov
(45)
Independent
  • Businessman
  • Bulgarian Voice
28 September 2023
Emil Atanasov
BSD
  • Actor
  • Founder and Chairman of the "Professional Syndicate of Bulgarian Actors" (2016-)
  • Bulgarian Social-Democrats
28 September 2023
Georgi Nedelchev
BUDD
  • Leader of the party "Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy" (2015-)
28 September 2023
Kalin Krulev
ONB
  • Former candidate for the party NFSB (2021)
  • Lead candidate for ONB in Lovech and Sofia (2022-2023)
28 September 2023
Teodor Dechev
(62)
BSDP
  • Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Kostov Government (1997-2001)
  • Chief Editor of the newspaper "Svoboda" (2012-2013)
2 October 2023

Registration denied

The following candidates were not registered as candidates for the Sofia Mayoral Election, despite announcing their intention to participate in it.

  • Hristo Popov, anti-vaccine activist who announced his intention to participate in the Sofia Mayoral Elections as an independent candidate. Registration denied by the Oblast Electoral Commission (OEC).
  • Atanas Stefanov, subdeacon, famous for his protest against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and removing the Ukrainian flag, who announced his intention to participate in the Sofia Mayoral Elections as an independent candidate. Registration denied by the Oblast Electoral Commission (OEC).

Withdrawn

The following candidates withdrew from the race from the Sofia Mayoral Election before the registration date.

  • Nikola Vaptsarov, announced his candidacy on 20 July, endorsed by Stand Up.BG, implicitly endorsed Vanya Grigorova and did not submit his candidacy.

Declined

The following individuals were speculated to have been interested in running within the Sofia Mayoral election, but eventually decided not to run.

GERB

  • Yordanka Fandakova, incumbent mayor from GERB since 2011.
  • Rosen Zhelyazkov, incumbent Chairman of the 48th Bulgarian National Assembly.
  • Georgi Georgiev, current chairman of the Sofia City Council. Was speculated to be the presumptive GERB nominee, however ended up endorsing Anton Hekimyan.
  • Nikolai Gabrovski, neurosurgeon and PM candidate for GERB in 2022. Has been speculated as a potential nomination for GERB, but was not selected as the eventual GERB candidate

PP-DB

BSPzB

  • Ivan Takov, leader of the Sofia city branch of the BSP, nominated by local chapters of BSP-Sofia for mayor. Endorsed Vanya Grigorova.
  • Maya Manolova, leader of the political party Stand Up.BG and BSP supported candidate in the 2019 Sofia Mayoral election. Declined to participate in the 2023 Sofia Mayoral Election and instead endorsed a "unity left candidate".

Other

  • Ivan Shishkov, former Caretaker Minister of Regional Development in the Donev I & Donev II. Served as deputy minister of Regional Development in the Stefan Yanev caretaker cabinets. Professionally is an architect. Has expressed interest in running for Mayor of Sofia, however did not end up filing for registration.

First Round Campaign

Vasil Terziev campaign

Vasil Terziev was announced as the joint candidate of PPDB, Spasi Sofia and Team for Sofia on 27 June 2023.

Vanya Grigorova campaign

Anton Hekimyan campaign

Deyan Nikolov campaign

Vili Lilkov campaign

Other candidates campaign

The candidate of the party "SBOR", Asen Angelov, gained some notoriety due to his campaigns use of unconventional campaign strategies: such as internet memes or the use of door-to-door campaigning rather than mass rallies. The campaign similarly gained some attention due to its intense spending on advertisements (potentially up to 130,000 Leva), while still receiving a rather disappointing result.

Opinion polls

Fieldwork date Polling firm Terziev Hekimyan Nikolov Grigorova Lilkov Valchev Vaptsarov Komitova Kontrera Undecided Lead
21–24 Oct 2023 Alpha Research 29.8% 21.1% 10.2% 20.2% 8.3% 3.4% N/A 1.9% 0.6% 4.5% 8.7%
16–20 Oct 2023 SovaHarris 32.9% 22.9% 13.1% 20.8% 4.0% 3.2% N/A 1.7% 1.8 1.7% 10.0%
10–17 Oct 2023 Mediana 24.8% 21.4% 13.4% 22.2% 7.2% 5.4% N/A 1.8 0.6 3.0 2.6%
29 Sept–9 Oct 2023 ESTAT 27.8% 18.7% 4.7% 20.6% 6.4% 2.4% N/A N/A N/A N/A 7.2%
21- 25 July 2023 Center for Analysis and Marketing 33.4% 22.7% 12% 10.6% 4.8% N/A 0.8% N/A N/A N/A 10.7%

Results

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (September 2023)
Candidate Party 1st Round 2nd Round
Votes % Votes %
Vasil Terziev PP-DB 119,121 31.80 175,044 48.20
Vanya Grigorova BSPzB 80,875 21.59 170,258 46.89
Anton Hekimyan GERB-SDS 66,792 17.83
Deyan Nikolov Revival 29,052 7.76
Vili Lilkov Blue Sofia 21,356 5.69
Ivaylo Valchev ITN 11,861 3.17
Radostin Vasilev Independent 9,450 2.52
Violeta Komitova BV 4,333 1.16
Karlos Kontrera VMRO 3,462 0.92
Svetoslav Vitkov GN 2,335 0.62
Asen Angelov SBOR 2,320 0.62
Petar Klisarov DD 1,850 0.49
Teodor Dechev BSDP 1,682 0.45
Krasimir Stoychev Zelenite 1,581 0.42
Mazhd Algafari CfC 776 0.21
Mariya Koleva Pravoto 642 0.17
Alexander Tomov BSDE 638 0.17
Kamen Dyulgerov BG 580 0.15
Yemil Atanasov BSD 563 0.15
Simeon Ananiev MIR 452 0.12
Georgi Nedelchev BUDD 417 0.11
Kalin Krulev ONB 412 0.11

See also

References

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Notes
  1. Refused to endorse a candidate initially, then endorsed Terziev
  2. Endorsed Grigorova
  3. Technically a civic organisation, rather than a political party, however has endorsed Vasil Terziev.
  4. While the BZNS regional branch has declared its support for Vili Lilkov, and has been included in the coalition "Blue Sofia", the national branch of the BZNS has not supported this and has said that an official decision as to the endorsement of the BZNS will come in September.
  5. Officially endorsed by the chairman of Levitsata! (Kostadin Paskalev), but it is not yet certain if all constituent parties shall support her nomination.
  6. ISBG technically endorsed Nikola Vaptsarov for mayor in July and have not withdrawn his candidacy, however, they are a constituent memember of Levitsata!, who signed in support of Grigorova's candidacy
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