Ruling party candidate leads presidential race into run-off

The candidate of Bulgaria's ruling right-wing GERB party, Rosen Plevneliev, was leading Sunday's presidential race, exit polls showed, but was heading for a second-round run-off. Low turnout and his failure to secure outright majority means he will go to the October 30 second-round run-off, with Socialist candidate and European deputy Ivaylo Kalfin. Plevneliev, a popular former construction minister, was leading with between 39.4 and 41.1-percent support, ahead of Kalfin on 26.7 and 30 percent, exit polls from Gallup, Alpha Research, Sova Harris and MBMD suggested. Bulgaria's former European commissioner Meglena Kuneva, who ran as an independent, was trailing in third with between 14 and 17 percent. The vote was headed for a second round run-off on October 30 because no candidate had garnered 51 percent of the vote and voter turnout failed to reach 50 percent. Analysts, who had seen Kuneva as an strong contender for the presidency if she managed to make the run-off, were now predicting an easier final win for Plevneliev. The technocrat, who only entered politics from the construction business two years ago, won popularity for his efforts to renovate the country's ageing infrastructure and to kickstart several major highway projects with EU money. Kalfin has projected himself as the social alternative to the government's anti-crisis austerity drive, promising to make employment, salaries and healthcare a priority. Allegations of vote-buying had marred the run-up to the vote and the refusal of half of all respondents in the exit polls to reveal their choice of candidate left pollsters puzzled. All four institutes allowed for a 3 to 4 percent margins of error between their exit polls and the official count. A survey last week by corruption watchdog Transparency International suggested that one in five Bulgarians were ready to sell their vote in Sunday's elections, which were also for local mayors and representatives in 264 municipal councils. More than 20 international observers monitored the election. Bulgarian prosecutors meanwhile announced it had opened 71 probes into suspected vote-buying and other irregularities, eight people already having been arrested. Bulgaria's president is elected in a direct ballot for a five-year term in office. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and has the right to veto legislation under certain circumstances. Socialist incumbent Georgy Parvanov could not run again after two successive terms in office and his seat is now highly coveted by the GERB, which already controls both parliament and the government. Analysts also saw the two-in-one presidential and local vote as an important gauge for the minority government's popularity two years after it took power amid worsening economic and social woes in EU's poorest newcomer. Many voters on Sunday told AFP they disapproved of the austerity measures of the right-wing cabinet that included public salary freezes and stalled reforms in key sectors like social security and healthcare. "I can't be happy with a government that does not think about its people. Things are getting from bad to worse," 37-year-old mother of two Kalina Dimitrova said. But they also said they saw no alternative. "I disapprove of some of GERB's policies but what's to do, you still have to vote for someone," added 34-year-old food marketing expert Petya Ilieva. Four years after joining the European Union, the average monthly salary in Bulgaria remains stuck at around 700 leva (360 euros, $490), while unemployment hit 9.40 percent in September. Gross domestic product is forecast to expand 2.5 percent this year, as the government seeks to cut government spending to rein in the budget deficit while not harming the economy. That is a far cry from pre-crisis annual growth rates of five or six percent. Corruption and organised crime also remain rampant despite election promises to clean things up of former top cop turned Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. The first partial official results are not expected until early Monday.