Locked Votes: Six Bulgarian Villages Await Round Three for Mayor!

In a rather unique turn of events following Sunday's local election runoff in Bulgaria, six villages across the country failed to elect a mayor in the second round, leading to new partial local elections. Among these villages is Cherna Gora in the Pernik district, where a perfect tie in votes occurred, leaving the decision to the president to schedule new elections.

The remarkable tie saw both mayoral candidates, Diana Atanasova, nominated by the "Movement for Prosperity of Pernik," and Dimitar Dimitrov, nominated by an initiative committee, receive an equal number of votes - 49.1% or 83 votes each.

In contrast to the national average, Cherna Gora recorded a higher voter turnout in the runoff than in the first round, making the deadlock even more intriguing. In the initial round, 157 votes were cast for the two candidates combined, compared to 166 votes in the second round, reflecting a slight increase.

Rumyana Petrova, the chairman of the municipal election commission in Pernik, shared insights on the situation, stating, "Compared to the previous round, the voter turnout was slightly higher. In the first round, a total of 157 actual votes were received for the two candidates, in the second round 166. In the first round, the candidates received 78 to 79 votes."

Apart from Cherna Gora, similar standoffs occurred in the villages of Chernook and Zhitnitsa in Provadia, the village of Iskritsa in the Stara Zagora region, in the village of Mogilino Ruse region, and the village of Strumitsa in the Petrich Region. In each case, the absence of a clear winner necessitates a third round of elections to determine the local leadership.