Bulgaria’s ‘Mayor of the Year’ Awards return with their 10th edition

Citizens will now be able to vote for their favourite local leader, with the awards ceremony set for 4 October

Voting for the 10^th Bulgarian ‘Mayor of the Year’ 2022 Awards has started today. During the voting, Bulgarian nationals will be able to choose their favourite mayor. The contest is organised by Kmeta.bg, a partner of TheMayor.EU.

Voting is region-locked to Bulgaria and will end on 30 September. The winners will be announced on 4 October, during an official ceremony broadcast on the Bulgarian National Television. The awards themselves will be handed out by the President of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev.

Awards and categories

There are five categories in which people can vote and pick their favourite mayor, centred around major policy agendas like sustainability and local focal points like tourism and quality of life. Additionally, every category will have a winner based on the population size of the municipality. Thus, they are divided into small, medium and large.

Small municipalities have up to 20,000 citizens, medium – between 20,000 and 50,000 and large have above 50,000.

The categories are:

• Smart city;
• Green city;
• Urban environment;
• Tourism and culture;
• Sport.

There are also two special categories, which every municipality is eligible to win, called Mayor of the Year and Mayor of the Citizens. These represent the two crowning awards as a token of recognition for their outstanding work with either the citizens or with the general management of an urban area.

Mayor of the Year is a unique initiative for Bulgaria, started in 2013. It aims to draw attention to local leaders who often have to deal with a lot of the major global issues and their impact on daily lives. Additionally, it aims to serve as a motivation for the mayors to work harder for their constituents.