The mayoral election ended in Blagoevgrad at 8.15 PM on Sunday with a record-low voter turnout of 27.76%.

According to preliminary data, Ilko Stoyanov from ITN (There Is Such a People) and Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) supported Rumen Tomov, former mayor who was removed from the post, will, most likely vie in a runoff next Sunday, 4 July.

The margin between the two is less than 1,200 votes, with Stoyanov winning 6,398 or 35.32% of the votes, and Tomov - 28.65%.

GERB-supported Andon Todorov comes third with a little over 20% of the votes. An early election was organized in the principal city in Southwestern Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, after engineer Rumen Tomov, who won the local elections in October 2019, was removed from office by force of a court ruling after failing to delete his sole proprietorship registration.