Local Elections 2015: Will Burgas Continue to be Among Bulgaria's Best Cities to Live in?

Local elections are coming in just days, and Novinite is fully aware it did not provide the campaign coverage a news outlet covering a particular country usually does whatever vote is forthcoming.

This was avoided on purpose, and in a short opinion piece after the vote we will explain why. Instead, we are offering short summaries about key candidates in Bulgaria's five biggest cities. These are Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, and Veliko Tarnovo.

Far from being an "extended ballot" - i.e. a full list of candidates with acclarations - each one is a selection of several candidates - either those who belong to one of the biggest parties or whose bid can easily be singled out for something in particular.

Following the summaries about the key candidates in Sofia, Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria's fourth largest city - Burgas comes next - with summaries arranged in random order. In the past five years, Burgas has been voted on three occasions as the "Best city to live in Bulgaria" in the annual poll of Darik radio and 24 Chasa daily. Burgas has also outpaced in many aspects its main competitor in the Black Sea region - Varna. However low living standards and average wages lower than the rest of Bulgaria raise some questions on the actual achievements.

A total of 11 candidates for mayor and 483 nominees for municipal councillors will be contesting the forthcoming local elections in the city of Burgas on October 25.

The largest ruling party GERB nominated the incumbent mayor Dimitar Nikolov, while the candidate of the largest opposition party BSP is Evgenii Mosinov.

Nikolov will be running for a third consecutive term after having been elected in 2007 and re...