Exit polls of Bulgaria ballots, Terziev ahead in Sofia

(ANSA) - SOFIA, 05 NOV - According to the first exit polls of the local government runoffs held today in Bulgaria, in the capital Sofia, millionaire Vassil Terziev, the son of a high-ranking member of the Ds, the Bulgarian KGB at the time of Todor Zhivkov's communist regime, backed by the ruling liberal party 'Let's Continue the Change' (Pp), is reported to have won the race by garnering 50.8 percent of the vote. His rival, trade unionist Vania Grigorova, backed by the opposition-aligned Bulgarian Socialist Party (Bsp), would go with 45.2 percent of the vote. The exit polls are from the Gallup International agency. Analysts believe that the difference recorded between the two by the exit polls is not categorical and one must wait for the results of the parallel vote count. According again to the first exit polls, in the city of Plovdiv, one of the strongholds of the conservative Gerb party and the second largest center in Bulgaria, Gerb candidate Kostadin Dimitrov would garner 52.8 percent of the vote against 41.5 percent that went to Ivailo Staribratov, candidate of the Pp. The Gerb would, however, lose the city of Varna, the largest port on the Black Sea, where the Pp is confirmed with 49.4 percent obtained by its candidate Blagomir Kotsev, beating Gerb's current mayor Ivan Portnik to whom 40.9 percent would go. (ANSA).