Rosen Plevneliev elected president during second round

Rosen Plevneliev elected president during second round

2011-11-01 00:11:06 GMT+7 (ICT)

SOFIA, BULGARIA (BNO NEWS) -- Rosen Plevneliev has been declared president-elect in Bulgaria's presidential elections after Sunday's second round runoff, officials said on Monday.

Plevneliev, 47, of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, faced Ivaylo Kalfin of the Bulgarian Socialist Party during the second round of voting. He won the runoff by receiving 52.56 percent of the votes against Kalfin's 47.44 percent.

The second round showed to be much tighter than the first one, which resulted in 40.11 percent of votes in favor of Plevneliev and 28.96 percent for Kalfin. The third most popular candidate was Meglena Kuneva of the initiative committee, who did not make it to the second round after receiving only 14.00 percent of the votes.

Plevneliev previously served as Minister of Regional Development and Public Works since July 27, 2009. The center-right politician will be succeeding Georgi Purvanov who has served as Bulgaria's president for two consecutive five-year terms and was constitutionally barred from running for a third term.

Purvanov expressed support for the president-elect in a letter sent to Plevneliev, who is scheduled to be officially sworn-in in January.

"The support your candidacy received is an expression of the will of the majority of the Bulgarian citizens," Purvanov stated in his letter. "I believe you will find the right solutions to be the mainstay of the Constitution and defend the rights and freedoms of all Bulgarian citizens."

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