The tough-talking premier has vowed to throw in the towel if his pro-EU protegee, parliamentary speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, loses to former airforce chief Rumen Radev, seen as friendly to Moscow.
A political novice, the 53-year-old fighter pilot stunned pollsters by sweeping 25.44 percent of the vote to Tsacheva’s 21.96 percent in the first round of the election on November 6.
The latest polls show Radev is still the favourite as voters seek to punish the government over its perceived failure to tackle rampant corruption and poverty in the European Union’s poorest member state.
Observers say the general’s victory might tilt ex-communist and Soviet ally Bulgaria, which has long walked a tightrope between Moscow and Brussels, towards Russia’s orbit-a trend seen across eastern and central Europe amid rising euroscepticism.
Nearby Moldova also looked set to elect a pro-Russian president on Sunday.
Tsacheva, 58, has vowed to keep Bulgaria on a pro-European path and accused her rival of being a “red general”.
But lacking charisma she has not inspired voters, in an embarrassing setback for the popular Borisov who became prime minister for the second time in 2014.
“Maybe I should have thought better when I staked the government’s fate on my choice... I was wrong and I will take full responsibility,” the burly ex-police chief said on Wednesday.
However, Sunday’s outcome could still be swayed with support from those who had voted for other first-round candidates, observers said.
The Bulgarian president’s role is largely ceremonial but he or she-Tsacheva would be the first woman in the position-is nonetheless a respected figure and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Opponents mobilised
Polling stations opened at 0500 GMT and will close at 1800 GMT, with first projections expected shortly afterwards.
If Tsacheva loses, Borisov could announce his resignation on Sunday evening.
Fresh elections are likely to plunge Bulgaria into renewed turmoil.
Prior to Borisov’s re-election, the country went through a long period of upheaval involving mass protests and a string of polls.
Despite promised reforms, graft and poverty remain rife while public anger has also been growing over thousands of migrants currently stranded in Bulgaria.
Borisov’s popularity has waned and opinion polls suggest that his GERB party would fail to win an outright majority in early elections.
And Borisov appears to have badly miscalculated in nominating Tsacheva, analysts say.
“His threat to step down has mobilised his opponents more than supporters,” Zhivko Georgiev of the Gallup Institute told AFP.
Russia not an ‘enemy’
A win for Radev would also signal a change in direction from outgoing President Rosen Pleneviev, a strong critic of Russia.
Sofia and Moscow have deep historical and cultural ties, and Bulgaria’s economy is heavily reliant on Russian energy.
Radev, a general who trained in the United States, has repeatedly insisted that “being a member of the EU and NATO does not mean that Bulgaria must be an enemy of Russia”.
He has also called for EU sanctions on Russia, imposed over the Ukrainian conflict, to be lifted-a position Tsacheva shared until Borisov pulled her back into line.
Source : http://en.prothom-alo.com/international/news/128905/Bulgarian-government-at-stake-in-presidential-poll
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