Ruling party candidate wins presidential runoff in Bulgaria

Rosen Plevneliev, 47, candidate of the ruling GERB party, won the presidential runoff in Bulgaria, according to an exit poll on Sunday evening. According to Alpha Research agency, Plevneliev is expected to have 54.8 percent of the votes, against 45.2 percent for his opponent from the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party, Ivaylo Kalfin. The official results will be released on Wednesday and the new president will take office in January. Eighteen candidates participated in the presidential elections. The current President Georgi Parvanov was not among them as he is ending his second five-year mandate. Plevneliev, born on May 14, 1964, graduated from Technical University in Sofia in 1989, and became a respected name in the construction business managing private companies. Between July 2009 and September 2011, he was Minister of Regional Development and Public Works. Plevneliev is considered as an expert who takes this position for only one mandate. "I'm not a politician, I'm not a member of the party, I am an expert and I would like to remain so," he told an interview this April, while in September announcing the nomination of Plevneliev, the GERB leader and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said "I will be presidential candidate for next presidential elections."