Bulgarian presidential election, 2006

The 2006 Bulgarian presidential election ( _bg. Избори за президент на България 2006, "Izbori za prezident na Balgariya 2006") was held on 22 October 2006, as decided on 27 July 2006 by the Bulgarian Parliament. [cite news |url=http://netinfo.bg/?tid=40&oid=914555 |publisher=Netinfo |title=На 22 октомври гласуваме за президент, реши парламентът |date=2006-07-27 |accessdate=2006-10-22 |author=Darik.net] The runoff took place on 29 October 2006, while the electoral campaign spanned 19 September–20 October. At the election, Georgi Parvanov won his second term as President of Bulgaria.

Some of the right-wing parties were disunited at the time but still chose to support a common candidate, Nedelcho Beronov. Prime minister and head of the Socialist Party Sergey Stanishev expressed his strong support for the current president, Georgi Parvanov, in July 2006, [cite web |url=http://www.mediapool.bg/show/?storyid=119915 |publisher=Mediapool |title=Станишев: Победата на Първанов е важна за утвърждаване на кабинета |accessdate=2006-10-22 |date=2006-07-28 |last=Yotova |first=Boryana |language=Bulgarian] and Parvanov officially stated his desire to run for a second term on 25 August 2006. [cite web |url=http://www.president.bg/news.php?id=2683&st=0 |publisher=President.bg |title=Инициативен комитет издигна кандидатурата на Георги Първанов за втори президентски мандат |language=Bulgarian |date=2006-08-25 |accessdate=2006-10-22]

In the first round, incumbent Georgi Parvanov came in first with 64% of the vote, ahead of ultranationalist leader Volen Siderov with 21.5%,cite web |url=http://www.izbori2006.org/results_1/ |title=Elections 2006: Final results for the country according to the Central Electoral Commission for the President and Vice President Elections |language=Bulgarian |accessdate=2006-10-24 |publisher=Izbori2006.org] whom he had to face in a runoff, as Bulgarian law requires a turnout of 50% for a president to be elected in the first round.cite news |title=Bulgaria's Parvanov wins 1st round presidential poll |url=http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-10-22T171346Z_01_L22677436_RTRUKOC_0_US-BULGARIA-ELECTION.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&c
] The voter turnout in the first round was 42.51%.cite web |url=http://www.izbori2006.org/activity/ |title=Elections 2006: Voter turnout for the country as of 7 pm |language=Bulgarian |accessdate=2006-10-30 |publisher=Izbori2006.org]

The second round saw a decisive Parvanov victory of around 75.9% as opposed to Siderov's 24.1%,cite web |url=http://www.izbori2006.org/results_2/ |title=Elections 2006: Final results for the country according to the Central Electoral Commission for the President and Vice President Elections |language=Bulgarian |accessdate=2006-10-30 |publisher=Izbori2006.org] meaning that Parvanov became the first person to be democratically re-elected as President of Bulgaria. [Zhelyu Zhelev, although having served two terms, was elected as a president not by popular vote, but by the National Assembly for his first term.] The turnout was 41.21%.

Results

References and notes

External links

*bg icon [http://www.izbori2006.org/ Izbori2006.org — official Central Electoral Commission website for the election]
*bg icon [http://www.focus-news.net/index.php?id=q Focus News' Elections 2006 section]