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1st LD: Exit polls show Socialist-backed candidate wins presidential runoff in Bulgaria

Xinhua, November 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Rumen Radev, a candidate backed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, won the presidential runoff in Bulgaria, two exit polls showed on Sunday evening.

According to Alpha Research agency, Radev is expected to have 58.1 percent of the votes against 35.3 percent for the GERB party candidate Tsetska Tsacheva, and 6.6 percent preferred the option "none of the above."

Gallup International anticipated 58.5 percent for Radev, 35.7 percent for Tsacheva, and 5.8 percent "none of the above."

The official results are expected to be announced on Wednesday and the new president will take office in January.

As many as 21 candidates participated in the presidential elections. Incumbent President Rosen Plevneliev, who won the last presidential elections in Bulgaria in October 2011 as a candidate of the GERB party, has decided not to run for a second five-year term "for personal reasons."

The 53-year-old Radev has been a professional jet fighter pilot since 1987 when he graduated from the country's air force university. He has also graduated from the Military Academy in Bulgaria and an Air War College in the United States, and holds a PhD in military science, flight training and air combat simulations.

Throughout his career, Radev has held various positions from junior pilot to the commander of the Bulgarian air force, the last one from June 2014 to August 2016 when he retired from the army.

Radev demonstrated his skills as pilot in October 2014 when, during a flying show at Sofia Airport, he performed with MiG-29 breathtaking aerobatic elements such as "Cobra" and "Bell." Endit