GERB leader Boyko Borisov took to the stage with Eshref Redjeb, the former mayor of Nikola Kozlevo, warmly shaking his hand and calling him “friend.” The packed hall of party activists responded with enthusiastic applause.
The year is 2024, but it feels like 2019.
The only difference is that the former mayor of Kozlevo now has a court ruling for a conflict of interest, which led to his early removal from office. Otherwise, the warm sentiments from the party leader and the cheers from the grassroots members mirror those from 2019, when Redjeb was once again on stage as a candidate for a second mayoral term on GERB’s list and one of Borisov’s prominent figures in the small Deliormana municipalities. His subsequent proven conflict of interest has clearly been “forgiven” by both Borisov and the members of GERB in Shumen, and Eshref Redjeb is returning to the party—his mother party—after a brief stint with NDP.
Borisov made sure that this return would be as spectacular as possible—during a campaign meeting for GERB in Shumen on May 28, broadcast live on his Facebook profile.
At the start of his speech, Borisov called Eshref Redjeb to the stage and apologized, shaking his hand and saying, “I’m sorry, friend!” In the background, all of GERB’s candidate deputies from Shumen and many of the party’s candidates for the European Parliament were lined up. “When I make a mistake, I always apologize,” Borisov stated to a hall that erupted in enthusiasm, apparently finding nothing inappropriate in the presence of a person with a proven conflict of interest among the candidates for the European Parliament and the National Assembly.
Borisov did not specify what exactly he was apologizing to Redjeb for, but it was clear to everyone that it referred to their brief political “divorce” after GERB refused to support the Kozlevo mayor for a third term.
On the eve of the local elections, Eshref Redjeb was preparing to run for a third term, despite the court ruling on a conflict of interest that prohibited him from holding public office for one year. The local GERB structure also considered the court decision an insignificant detail and unanimously put forward Redjeb’s candidacy for another term, while his close associates were convinced that legal “loopholes” would be found.
For the past eight years, the small municipality had been a bastion of GERB, providing the party with significant electoral victories. However, the Executive Committee of GERB ultimately rejected his candidacy, evidently unsettled by the recent court ruling against Redjeb. Following this, the alternative mayoral candidacy proposed by Eshref Redjeb—his son Redjeb Veli—was also dismissed, as reported by activists.
Shortly thereafter, the “governing family” in Nikola Kozlevo migrated overnight to the party of Gyuner Tashir, NDP, along with all municipal councilors and village mayors who had previously been active members of GERB. Redjeb’s son was registered as a candidate for mayor, and NDP also entered the elections with a full list of municipal council candidates, managing to win 6 out of a total of 13 seats in the municipal council. Thus, one of the strongest families in Deliormana—the Eshrefoglu—successfully erased GERB from the political map of Nikola Kozlevo.
Now Borisov is correcting his “mistake” and will once again rely on the family for the upcoming elections.
The elections in Nikola Kozlevo are shaping up to be quite interesting, as they will pit close political leaders Boyko Borisov and Delian Peevski against each other—both of whom Borisov referred to as “bright figures” during a recent campaign meeting in Shumen.
In the local elections in October 2023, the Eshrefoglu family was deposed from the mayoral position in Kozlevo by a candidate from DPS,
and now Peevski’s party stands as the primary political force in the municipality. In second place is Eshref Redjeb’s party, whichever it may be, as votes in the municipality tend to follow the former mayor. Following his return to GERB, a record increase in support for this political force is expected. However, it is doubtful that Peevski will be happy to relinquish the hard-won municipality, even to another “bright figure.”
Curious Political Migrations in Nikola Kozlevo Before the Elections
The curious political migrations in Nikola Kozlevo began at the start of the election campaign. During consultations for the distribution of seats in the sectional commissions, representatives of other parties were surprised to see the municipal councilors of Eshref Redjeb, officially from NDP, scattering in different directions. “One of the councilors came to the consultations with a mandate from GERB, while another had one from ‘We Continue the Change,'” reported a participant in the meeting.
Political headquarters are now watching the situation in Nikola Kozlevo with heightened attention.
While Eshref Redjeb held the mayoral position, his party GERB won elections with a significant lead. In the parliamentary elections of 2022, for example, GERB secured 60% of the votes in the municipality, receiving 1,503 ballots out of a total of 2,504 cast. The second political force, DPS, lagged far behind with a 538-vote deficit, capturing 21.5%, while BSP received only 120 votes, ranking third with 14.7%.
In the subsequent early parliamentary elections on April 2, 2023, GERB was once again the undisputed winner in Nikola Kozlevo, garnering 59% of the votes. DPS slightly increased its result to 24.3%, while BSP plummeted to 5.1%.
In addition to providing an impressive number of votes for GERB, the municipality was also one of the largest donors for Ilter Beyzatov, the GERB deputy from Shumen, who garnered record preferences in Nikola Kozlevo. A striking example of controlled voting occurred in the village of Valnari in 2021, when out of 401 ballots for GERB, a remarkable 400 were in favor of the second candidate on the list, Ilter Beyzatov.
Moreover, Beyzatov, who is the son of the former head of Palamara and personal translator for Borisov, Beyzat Yahya, continues to be a favorite among voters in Valnari. In the most recent parliamentary elections in April 2023, he once again achieved an impressive result in the village. Out of 202 votes cast for GERB in one of the sections, 176 were with preferences for Beyzatov.
Now, Ilter Beyzatov is again second on the GERB list, following former Shumen mayor Lyubomir Christov, who has also been rehabilitated by Borisov. Christov was first reinstated as the regional chair of GERB and later appointed to lead the deputy list.
In the autumn, most of the votes for GERB flowed toward NDP. The mayoral candidate Redjeb Veli received 1,708 votes in the elections, which is 124 fewer than the winner Ismail Ibraym, nominated by the local coalition of DPS-BSP, who garnered 1,832 votes.
Although Ibraym won the mayoral election in the first round, it is evident that the Eshrefoglu family brings with it a significant number of votes. On June 9, we will see how many of these votes will return to GERB and how the political duel between the “bright figures” Borisov and Peevski will conclude in the small Deliormana municipality.
