I don't support it for any of the first four reasons and think that it's creation was a great mistake. I support their existence only because by having existed for over 60 years, Israel's existence is now an established fact and destroying Israel would mostly be affecting people who have no responsibility for what happened when Israel was founded and would be just as great an injustice as the one that happened to the Arabs in 1948.

One of the best-known cases, and certainly the most overglorified case, of suicide by cop.

Are you really claiming that they were suicidal? Or is it your usual cynicism

Joseph Ratzinger seems most logical. After all the papal name goes with being a pope.

He probably doesn't want to end up like his predecessor, who was almost completely incapacitated towards the end of his life.

North Dakota



DISTRICT 1: EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA: Obama 50.4%, McCain 47.7%. The easternmost 18 counties, with nearly half of the population living in Cass county (Fargo). Though 2008 was an unusually good result for the Democrats in Presidential elections (Romney won it 51.9% to 45.1%) , the tendency of North Dakota Democrats to over-perform in congressional elections makes it Lean D.

DISTRICT 2: WESTERN NORTH DAKOTA: McCain 59.1%, Obama 38.9%. The other 35 counties, including Bismarck. Safe R.

Oklahoma







This assumes (like with my previous maps) non-partisan redistricting. The Republican legislature would probably split Oklahoma city into three or even four districts

DISTRICT 1: SOUTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA: McCain 69.3%, 47.5% R  average.  One of the three districts that comprise the majority of Oklahoma's area. This district is traditionally Democratic and could probably elect a Boren-type Democrat, so it's only Lean R, despite it being even more Republican than the state average in Presidential elections.

DISTRICT 2: SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA: McCain 67.8%, R 50.9%. Even bigger by area than the 1st, though over a third of the population is in the Lawton metro (Comanche county), the third largest in the state. Though this district also contains some ancestral Democratic areas (like Jefferson county), it's probably Safe R, outside a very good year for the Democrats.

DISTRICT 3: NORTHEASTERN OKLAHOMA: McCain 62.4%, R 46%. Another mostly rural district, with Muskogee being by far the largest city. It's 23.2% Native American, the highest percentage in the state. The district is also traditionally Democratic and has preserved this status slightly better than the 1st district (Obama's two best counties are here). But it's Lean R at most.

DISTRICT 4: OUTER TULSA METROPOLITAN AREA: McCain 70%, R 54.7%. Except for two counties, the name is literal. Safe R.

DISTRICT 5: TULSA: McCain 58.1%, R 51.8%. Entirely within the city of Tulsa. This is the opposite of the eastern districts - it's traditionally Republican, so despite the low McCain result, it's safe R.

DISTRICT 6: INNER TULSA METROPOLITAN AREA: McCain 66.9%, R 57%. The rest of Tulsa county and parts of Creek county. Safe R.

DISTRICT 7: STILLWATER-OKMULGEE-SHAWNEE: McCain 65.9%, R 49.9% Central Oklahoma would probably also work, considering that it basically fills up the space between the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan areas (and includes parts of both). A surprisingly strong Democrat average moves it to Lean R, though that probably applies only to very conservative Democrats.

DISTRICT 8: SUBURBAN OKLAHOMA COUNTY: McCain 67.4%, R 58.8%. Includes most of Oklahoma county that's not in the 10th district, including part of the city. Safe R.

DISTRICT 9: CANADIAN COUNTY-GRADY COUNTY-CADDO COUNTY: McCain 71.2%, R 58.8%. Though it stretches as far west as Custer and Washita counties, calling it western OKC suburbs would probably also be a good name, considering where most of the population lives. Safe R.

DISTRICT 10: OKLAHOMA CITY: McCain 42.5%, R 38.9%. Contains, apart from most of Oklahoma city, a few enclosed towns. Only district with a non-white majority (42.2% white, 48.6% VAP). Safe D.

DISTRICT 11: CLEVELAND COUNTY: McCain 64.4%, R 54%. Name is not strictly true, thoughabout 80% of the population does live in Cleveland county, again mostly in the OKC suburbs. Safe R

DISTRICT 12: NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA: McCain 76.8%, R 60.6%. The area is so sparsely settled that it has to reach into the OKC suburbs to make up the numbers. Not only the most Republican district in the state, but probably among the most Republican in the country.

So overall 8 Safe R, 3 Lean R and one Safe D.

Since I was just about to post it before traininthedistance beat me to it, here's my version of Wisconsin:




DISTRICT 1: KENOSHA-RACINE: Obama 58%,  D 48.4%. Both of the main cities and most of the respective counties. I think this would probably be lean D - for example Kerry probably carried it, in a good year for the Republicans in Wisconsin.

DISTRICT 2: SOUTH MILWAUKEE: Obama 50.3%, D 43.5%. Mostly the whiter southern suburbs of Milwaukee. Lean R.

DISTRICT 3: CENTRAL MILWAUKEE: Obama 74.1%, D 69.8%. Entirely within the city of Milwaukee, hence the somewhat convoluted shape. Safe D.

DISTRICT 4: NORTH MILWAUKEE: Obama 79.2%, D 75.8%. Black majority district (54.3%, VAP 50.3%). Most Democratic in the state.

DISTRICT 5: EASTERN WAUKESHA COUNTY: Obama 37.4%, D 29.1%. City of Waukesha and most of the county. Most Republican district in the state.

DISTRICT 6: JEFFERSON COUNTY-WALWORTH COUNTY-WESTERN WAUKESHA COUNTY: Obama 43.1%, D 32.2%. A somewhat awkward district composed of the remainder of Southeastern Wisconsin, including also part of Racine and Dodge counties (mainly the town of Watertown). Safe R.

DISTRICT 7: SOUTH CENTRAL WISCONSIN: Obama 62.9%, D 52.5%. Most of the population is in Rock county, where the two largest cities, Janesville and Beloit are located. Safe D.

DISTRICT 8: SUBURBAN DANE-PORTAGE-DODGE COUNTY:  Obama 58.7%, D 51.3% Another district without many notable cities, it reaches as far as western Washington county. Not much more Democratic in 2008 than the 1st, but judging from the 2010 result probably safe D.

DISTRICT 9: MADISON: Obama 76.1%, D 74%. Includes (obviously) Madison and a few surrounding cities. Second most Democratic district in the state.

DISTRICT 10: CENTRAL COAST: Obama 40.6%, D 30.4%. Stretching from Sheboygan to the Milwaukee county line and also includes West Bend. Safe R.

DISTRICT 11: FOND DU LAC-OSHKOSH: Obama 50.5%, D 39.9%. The district is situated around Lake Winnebago, which nearly divides it into two halves. Despite the 2008 result, probably safe R.

DISTRICT 12: SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN: Obama 60%, D 48.6%. Self-explanatory. Part of the traditional western Democratic strongholds, though it collapsed in 2010. Lean D, though probably going to be held except in a very bad year.

DISTRICT 13: CENTRAL WISCONSIN: Obama 55.4%, D 44.5%. Again an obvious name for a district without any major settlements. It experienced one of the biggest swings to the Republicans in 2012. Lean R.

DISTRICT 14: APPLETON-WESTERN GREEN BAY SUBURBS: Obama 53.4%, D 42.2%. Named after the areas where most of the population is, though it stretches into the more sparsely populated Oconto and Shawano counties. Lean R.

DISTRICT 15: GREEN BAY-MANITOWOC: Obama 55.1%, D 43.9%. With the most Republican parts of Brown county in the 14th district, this is a bit more Democratic, though still lean R.

DISTRICT 16: EAU CLAIRE-ST.PAUL SUBURBS: Obama 54.7%, D 45.1. Relatively small by area for Northern Wisconsin, as it includes both the largest city in the region and the outer Twin Cities suburbs. The 2008 Obama and average R results nearly mirror each other. Tossup.

DISTRICT 17: NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN: Obama 55%, D 46.5%. The largest district in Wisconsin. Probably tossup, though the trend seems to favor the Democrats.

DISTRICT 18: NORTHEASTERN WISCONSIN: Obama 53.2%, D 42.3%. Nearly half of the population is in Marathon county, so it could probably also be called Wausau and Wilderness Lean R (though it includes the most Democratic county in the state).

Overall:
5 Safe D
2 Lean D
2 Tossup
5 Lean R
4 Safe R
The state seems to be naturally gerrymandered towards the Republicans, though the if you consider the 15th a tossup district and the 17th a Democratic leaning one, the Democratic and Republican would be exactly equal.

So apparently socialists in France are not pussies on this issue, unlike in some other European countries? This considerably improves my opinion of Hollande.

link

Two individuals with links to Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah were involved in a bomb attack on a bus in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists last July, Bulgaria's interior minister said on Tuesday.

The conclusions of the Bulgarian investigation may open the way for the European Union to join the United States in branding the Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organization since there is now a clear connection to an attack on EU territory.

Three people were involved in the attack, two of whom had genuine passports from Australia and Canada, Tsvetan Tsvetanov told reporters after Bulgaria's national security council discussed the investigation.

"We have established that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah," Tsvetanov said. "There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects."

Israel blamed the attack in the Black Sea city - which killed five Israeli tourists, their Bulgarian driver and the bomber - on Iran and Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Islamist militia that is part of the Lebanese government.

<snip>

Of course the useful idiots will still think Iran is never the aggressor.

Tsvetanov's word choice was somewhat less categorical than what most foreign media are suggesting it was. While he said that it was certain that the terrorists were person who had lived in Lebanon and had Canadian or Australian citizenship, but that they were connected with Hezbollah was a "justified assumption". Of course, that's most likely true, but obviously more information would be needed to prove it for certain. The minister also stressed Bulgaria's good relations with Lebanon, hoping that they would cooperate on the investigation. With Hezbollah so influential in Lebanon, not likely to happen, though of course convicting the perpetrators in court was never the important part...

Write-in: Bulgaria. Though I would also be interested in Russia and Germany.

So... how did this end?

There are two games still ongoing: Snowball vs SPC and Mikado vs Bore.

Mikado vs. Bore (also presumably)

And congratulations to Oakvale, who is now tied for second place.

For the record, Oakvale gets second place, after defeating me in a private tie break.

You mean the three games between 31 January and February 4?

Correa is arguably even worse than Chavez.

Yes, he's in better health

Kansas



This was intended to be a reasonably fair map. Of course if the actual Kansas legilsature was in charge of drawing it, they would probably split Wichita in two and instead of making a Lawrence-Leavenworth district, split the area in two and create another district on the Missouri border.

DISTRICT 1: KANSAS CITY-NORTHERN JOHNSON COUNTY: 56.4-42.3 Obama. The least white district in Kansas (62.9%, 67.2% VAP). Should be safe D for Kansas Democrats.

DISTRICT 2: EASTERN JOHNSON COUNTY: 54.6-44.1 McCain. Contains Overland Park and parts of Olathe. Should be safe R outside of wave years.

DISTRICT 3: SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS: 60.2-37.7 McCain. Most rural of the eastern dstricts, with no significant settlements except Emporia. Safe R.

DISTRICT 4: LAWRENCE-LEAVENWORTH: 49.8-48.3 Obama. Contains also part of Johnson county (mostly Olathe). Was probably won by Romney, but is still the only toss-up district.

DISTRICT 5: TOPEKA-MANHATTAN: 54.6-43.6 McCain. Like the second district should be safe R in a non-wave year.

DISTRICT 6: SOUTH CENTRAL KANSAS: 64.2-33.9 McCain. Contains mostly the suburbs of Wichita. Safe R.

DISTRICT 7: WICHITA: 50.3-47.9 McCain. Contains (obviously) most of Wichita and is the second least-white district (63.5%, 68.9% VAP). Slight lean R, though certainly can be taken by a good Democratic candidate.

DISTRICT 8: HUTCHINSON-SALINA-JUNCTION CITY: 64.4-33.7 McCain. The most centrally located district, with several mid-sized cities. Safe R.

DISTRICT 9: WESTERN KANSAS: 73.3-25 McCain. Self-explanatory and of course extremely safe R.

So most likely 7-1-1.

Interestingly, the partisan divide on whether to switch to the congressional districts system in Texas is minimal, with majorities of both parties supporters being against. One think that the Democrats would like the chance of earning at least some of Texas' districts.

[Coal power plant areas:]

• Coal power plant areas: Maritsa-Istok (what about others?)

The second largest is in Beloslav municipality, near Varna which voted 55.5% "yes". The third largest is in Bobov dol and there are also large ones near Sofia and Pernik. So the rule doesn't seem to hold up very well. Then again, the Maritsa Istok complex is old, polluting and will probably be among the first to go if it ever comes down to closing unnecessary power plants. And without the power plants, the coal mines there will probably have to close as well - their current purpose is to provide coal for the plants. That is probably not the case in the coal regions in western Bulgaria.

I have some more coal area figures:

Bobov dol town  (coal mine & power plant)       64
Babino (coalmine, Bobov dol municipality)        40
Mamlovo (coalmine, Bobov dol municipality)     73
Katrishte coalfield, Kjustendil municipality        75
Gabra (coalmine, Erin Pelin municipality           53

The other coalmines I came across in my internet research are in Bojchinowzi municipality, Montana province, which according to your map voted over 70% yes, and in a Turkish minority area in southwestern Shumen province (also > 70% yes, but that may be due to the Turkish vote).

A pretty obscure picture - some coal areas voted quite strongly against Belene, while others either did not care or, possibly, even would be happy if the mine closed rather sooner than later (e.g. Katrishte, which is open pit and has recently been privatised). It is also interesting that of the two coal mining towns near Bobov dol, one - to the southwest - voted "no", while the other - to the southeast - voted strongly "yes". Am I right to suppose that winds are primarily blowing from the norht-west?

Yes, in this part of the country:



I wonder if this map was better known there would be such high votes for Belene in Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse provinces...

Regarding the voting behavior of these western towns, most of them apparently supply the power plant in Bobov Dol. So the results are curiously inconsistent. Incidentally the village where the plant administration is actually located (Golemo selo) only had 44% as well. Of course, considering the low turnout there is liable to be random movement affecting the result. Also the political party in power has to be taken into account. For example, the mayor in Radnevo was from GERB, while the mayor in neighboring Galabovo which also includes part of Maritsa Iztok is not.

Incidentally, did you use the text results or the individual precinct reports?

I've calculated the results for some of the largest cities in Bulgaria. Towns marked with * are not province centers.

Sofia                  54.6%
Plovdiv               53.4%
Varna                 52.2%
Burgas               51.1%
Ruse                  54.1%
Stara Zagora     54.5%
Pleven               70.3%
Sliven                62.4%
Dobrich              55.2%
Shumen             58.7%
Pernik                61.2%
Haskovo            63.1%
Yambol              62.9%
Pazardzhik        61.4%
Blagoevgrad     55.8%
Veliko Tarnovo  62.2%
Vratsa               61.2%
Gabrovo            55%
Asenovgrad*     58.5%
Vidin                  67.4%
Kazanlak*          58.3%
Kyustendil          66%
Kardzhali            68.1%
Montana            67.7%
Dimitrovgrad*    60.6%
Targovishte        66.8%
Lovech               58.4%
Silistra                59%
Dupnitsa*          60.7%
Svishtov*             52.8%
Razgrad                 63.2%
Gorna Oryahovitsa*  67.2%
Smolyan                  61.8%

The results seem to confirm (with some aberrations due to traditional partisanship and ethnic composition) that larger cities were less supportive of the referendum, though the four largest cities were ironically in exactly the reverse order. I also have a feeling that support for the Belene plant was stronger in northern Bulgaria, which wouldn't be surprising when considering the little infrastructure work that has been done there even by this government which is supposed to be doing little else if one trusts the mass media and the hopes that Belene would be good for their economy.

[Coal power plant areas:]

• Coal power plant areas: Maritsa-Istok (what about others?)

The second largest is in Beloslav municipality, near Varna which voted 55.5% "yes". The third largest is in Bobov dol and there are also large ones near Sofia and Pernik. So the rule doesn't seem to hold up very well. Then again, the Maritsa Istok complex is old, polluting and will probably be among the first to go if it ever comes down to closing unnecessary power plants. And without the power plants, the coal mines there will probably have to close as well - their current purpose is to provide coal for the plants. That is probably not the case in the coal regions in western Bulgaria.

The correlation with large cities seems very strong (except Pleven, which voted 70.3%, for "yes").
I haven't checked the exact date, but even the cities where the "yes" vote was high, had notably lower percentages than the surrounding areas. This seems to the general electoral pattern as well.
Stara Zagora voted 54.5% yes, so it fits as well.

Your municipality map indicates that even several medium-sized cities like Shumen, Dobrich, Yambol, Gabrovo and Blagoegrad had a quite low "yes" vote..

Yes, the general electoral pattern is that there is a almost linear correlation between size of a settlement and its support of right-wing parties. It's not surprising that you noticed Yambil and Dobrich, as their municipalities contain only the cities itself, while the surrounding villages are in a separate municipality, so the contrast is particularly clear.  Gabrovo has been always very right-wing for its size, probably for historical reasons.

I now have the figures for all seaside towns/villages in Burgas Province, which are pretty conclusive. The whole cost (Burgas municipality excluded, as it is a different story) voted  53% yes:

Rezovo           48%
Sinemorets      39%  
Ahtopol           61%
Tsarevo           61%
Kiten               48%
Primorsko        55%
Sosopol           51%
Atyia               57%
Chernomorets  48%
Pomorie           51%
Aheloy             60%
Rawda             42%
Nesebar           46%
Sveti Vlas         54%
Obsor               63%

It is pretty obvious that the tourist locations, and especially those that strongly rely on foreign tourists (Sosopol, Pomorie, Nesebar), barely supported or even opposed Belene. Do you have figures for major inland destinations (Rila, Veliko Tarnovo, Borovets) at hand?

No one lives in Borovets, but one of the other major ski resorts, Bansko, had 54.3% "yes" votes. Chepelare, another ski resort, also had the relatively low 52.42%. So your theory seems to be lining up well with the facts.

On your municipalities map (great work, btw!), I noted six municipalities that voted "no". Three are within Sofia (the larger southeastern one, is that including Pancharevo and the Embassy quarter?) What are these municipalities like?

Sofia is not actually divided into municipalities, it's just one big municipality. It's divided into 24 districts (Plovdiv and Varna are also divided into districts). Here's a bigger map to see it more clearly:



The big one in the southeast is Pancharevo and it includes only villages, but it has undergone some influx of wealthy suburbanites, and wealthier people seem to have been in general opposed to the building of the plant. I checked the figures for the individual settlements and since villages closer to Sofia voted against and those further away voted for, this seems to be the most likely explanation.

The three central districts, apart from being moderately wealthy, are also disproportion ally populated by "old Sofians", people whose ancestors lived here before the Communists came to power and the city grew many times. These people tend to have a very negative view of Communists or what they perceive to be Communists. For many of them, Belene being built by a Russian company would probably be enough to get them to vote against it.

The western district that voted "no" was Bankya, Borisov's hometown.

Then there is Radnevo (coal mining & power generation) in the south-central part of Bulgaria. What about the other two  one a bit south-east of Sofia, the other one along the Turkish border?

The one to the south of Sofia is Dolna Banya, a small spa town. Before 2009 it seemed not to lean towards any party, when it quite surprisingly became Borisov's best municipality, even better than Bankya. So it's logical they would support his position now as well. I can't really explain why it would support him so strongly, though. I suspect that this might be a case of what is euphemistically called the "company vote" - a powerful boss who controls the local economics gets the voters to turn out for the candidate he supports.

The third municipality that voted no, Lybimets, is a bit of mystery for me. It has only a small town and several villages, it has no power plants, it's not much of a tourist attraction and it's not a GERB stronghold.

Also, any idea why Bulgarian Mazedonians were comparatively less entusiastic on the Belene project?

What do you mean under Bulgarian Macedonians? If you mean ethnic Macedonians, they are hardly any in Bulgaria. The inhabitants of the Bulgarian part of Macedonia (which has almost the same territory as Blagoevgrad province) do have a regional identity as Macedonians, but they identify as Bulgarians (except the Pomaks).

I don't think that they were comparatively less enthusiastic. Blagoevgrad itself like other large towns had lower percentages for "yes" but most of the other municipalities had higher percentages for "yes" than the average for the country (I'm not counting the Pomak dominated areas in the western part of the province). The exceptions are Bansko and Razlog, which might be due to tourist issues.

[Major cities]

As you can apparently read Cyrillic, here is a map of the municipalities in Bulgaria.

Thanks - but "reading" is actually a bit of an overstatement. I would say I can deccypher Cyrillic.

O.k, so what do we have so far:

"No" vote tends to be higher in:

• Major cities: Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora? Pleven probably not.
• Coal power plant areas: Maritsaa-Istok (what about others?)
• Towns / villages directly on the Danube downstream of Belene (fishing may be an issue here)

The correlation with large cities seems very strong (except Pleven, which voted 70.3%, for "yes"). I haven't checked the exact date, but even the cities where the "yes" vote was high, had notably lower percentages than the surrounding areas. This seems to the general electoral pattern as well.
Stara Zagora voted 54.5% yes, so it fits as well.

Not conclusive are results yet for

• Tourism areas (I am working on it on a town / village level)
• Coal mining areas (at least that is my take-away from the figures in your last post, correct me if I am wrong)

I think so as well. Incidentally, the coal mined around Radnevo is lignite, used in coal-fired plants, while the one mined in western Bulgaria is mostly brown coal.

From your comments, I sense that party allegiance tends in several cases to have been overriden by other of the above factors, but I may be misinterpreting you here.

Certainly in Pleven province. And to an extent in the Maritsa Coal Region.

Two things that might still be interesting is:

• Students' vote (provided there are any larger universities outside the main cities)
• a look on the Turkish minority vote on village / municipality level rather than just by province.

As I have no idea on where universities and the Turkish minority are located, this would have to be done by you, if you feel like it.

Turkish municipalities voted "yes" by a huge margin (see map here) and so did those Pomak areas which support the MRF. Considering that Borisov is quite unpopular among them, voting against him on this referendum was probably a protest vote.
Regarding students, the Sofia district of Studentski Grad, where the campuses of nearly all universities in Sofia are located, voted 56.6% "yes", higher than the Sofia average. One must be cautious in drawing conclusions from this however, as turnout was probably not very high among students. Then again, students (or at least those studying scientific disciplines) may well be more sympathetic to the building of a nuclear plant than the average younger people.

Here is a map of the results by municipality:

[directly at the Danube]

Fascinating details. Could you check two more things:
1. Coal minig areas (I would guess they rather voted no, even though they should generally lean to the left)
2. Tourism areas (the coast north of Burgas)

The Svishtov result comes at a surprise, considering it is just some 10 km west of Belene, and should economically benefit from the construction. Maybe they are afraid of increasing heavy traffic through the town (might also be a factor in Ruse - is the Danube bridge still as crowded as it used to be?).
What about other communities that are close to the Danube downstream of Belene (Silvo Pole, Ivanovo, Tutrakan, Silistra)

Now that full results are available in text format, I can calculate these far easier. As you can apparently read Cyrillic, here is a map of the municipalities in Bulgaria.

1. Some of the most important coal mines are in the above mentioned Radnevo. Some others:
Bobov dol      61.1%
Galabovo       55% (it's adjacent to Radnevo and contains part of the Maritsa Iztok power plants)
Simitli             60.9%
Pernik            62.1% (but since Pernik is a much bigger city, coal mining is not as important for the local economy.)
Most coal mining areas seem to lean towards BSP, but not nearly as much as rural areas.


2. The coastal municipalities, from south to north:
Tsarevo         60%
Primorsko      55.3%
Sozopol         55.6%
Burgas           51.5% (the city itself is 51.1%)
Pomorie         56.7%
Nesebar         56%
Byala              67.8%
Dolni Chiflik*    65.2%
Avren*             55.4%
Varna             52.1%
Aksakovo*       55.6%
Balchik            65.3%
Kavarna          64.4%
Shabla*            64.8%

Municipalities marked with * are those where tourism is not as important or well developed as the others.

Finding results by municipality is not easy, as they are not officially published. Sometimes local media report the results for their own province, but I had to calculate many of these results myself by adding up the individual precinct results. Which is not too difficult if we're talking about a small municipality of a few thousand, but it's an enormous task if it's a big one.

It is bad for big cities, but actually great if one wants to test specal assumptions. I have started to look up results in all villages / towns that are located directly at the Danube downstream from Belene. From West to East, that is whar I have got so far (yes vote, excluding invalid votes):

Svishtov                       53%  (took your figure - is it the municipality or the city proper?)
Vardim                         57%
Mechka                        55%
Karaorman /( Kumi Gradishte  - could not find figures, probably part of Ruse
Ruse City                        too many districts, not done yet
Marten                       47%
Sandrovo                    51%
Ryahovo                     56%
Tutrakan                     64%
Pozharevo                   48%
Dolno Ryahovo            49%
Garvan                       55%
Popina                        62%
Vetren                        58%
Aydemir                     55%
Silistra                         too many districts, not done yet


This starts to look like a pattern ...

As soon as you go a little bit inland, you get the following:

Novi Grad                  79%
Kriwina                       71%
Batin                         74%
Gorno Ablamovo         80%
Pirgovo                      63%
Bassarnovo                49.8%  
Slivo Pole                  73%  
Babovo                      63%
Golyamo Vranovo       60%
Brashlen                   60%
Tsar Zemuli               81%
Nova Cerna               79%
Malak Preslavets        70%
Sitovo                       80%
Svebarna                  79%
Kalipetrovo                68%

So this seems a very localised phenomenen. How popular is fishing in the region?

The result for Svishtov is for the city itself. The city of Ruse voted 54.1% "yes", while Silistra voted 59% "yes", so this seems to be one of the few cases where the large cities have higher results than the rural areas. And since fishing is indeed popular in the villages along the Danube, this might indeed be an explanation for the results.

I've looked up and calculated a few more municipality results and some interesting conclusions can be drawn. Regarding Varna, it was indeed the city that was least supportive of Belene, with about 52.2% "yes", while the rest of the province voted about 63.8% in favor, but due to almost 75% of the votes being in Varna, it averages it out to 54.99% overall.

Franknburger's suggestion that areas with rival power plants might be opposed turned out to be right in some cases, though not where he expected it. For example, the municipality of Radnevo where the Maritsa Istok Complex, Bulgaria's largest coal-fired power plant, is partially located, voted against the Belene plant with about 53% of the votes. On the other hand, the municipality of Kozloduy, where Bulgaria's current nuclear plant is located, voted 79.2% in favor, despite the recent scare tactics to claim that their plant would be closed sooner if Belene were built (then again, having the former prime minister Kostov carry out this campaign was probably not the brightest idea).

Regarding the idea that  Danube settlements downstream of Belene would not like the plant, the evidence is not conclusive, though Svishtov, the town where 100 people died in an earthquake in 1977, supported it only by a narrow margin (53% yes).

Fascinating details. Could you check two more things:
1. Coal minig areas (I would guess they rather voted no, even though they should generally lean to the left)
2. Tourism areas (the coast north of Burgas)

Finding results by municipality is not easy, as they are not officially published. Sometimes local media report the results for their own province, but I had to calculate many of these results myself by adding up the individual precinct results. Which is not too difficult if we're talking about a small municipality of a few thousand, but it's an enormous task if it's a big one. Sometimes you can download all precinct result on one page, but that's not available at the moment. But if I'm able to obtain some of these, I'll try to post them later

The Svishtov result comes at a surprise, considering it is just some 10 km west of Belene, and should economically benefit from the construction. Maybe they are afraid of increasing heavy traffic through the town (might also be a factor in Ruse - is the Danube bridge still as crowded as it used to be?).

As I mentioned, they probably still remember that earthquake in 1977 and were concerned about safety issues. Plus, their mayor is from GERB and campaigned passionately against the Belene plant. On the other hand, a new plant would be good for the economy of the region, which is probably why the yes vote did prevail in the end (though of course as everywhere many opponents simply didn't vote).
As for Ruse, it's a large city and for various reasons (larger youth vote, less supporters of BSP, more supporters of right-wing parties, more support for environmental protection) these had a far lower support for the referendum. I don't think it had anything to do with the bridge.
Incidentally, I actually remember that wasn't very used before Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU. In fact, a blog post from 2003 claimed it was nearly deserted.

[Voting will be open on Sunday for 1.5 hours from 10:30 am to 12:00]

A new parliament will be elected in Liechtenstein this Sunday.

The 2 main parties are

* Fatherland Union (Vaterländische Union, VU)
* Progressive Citizens Party (Fortschrittliche Bürgerpartei in Liechtenstein, FBP)

Both of them are conservative, even though the VU is the more liberal one.

In this election there will be 2 other parties:

* The Free List (Freie Liste, FL) - Social Democratic/Green
* The Independents (Die Unabhängigen, DU)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein_parliamentary_election,_2013

Usually, in the past 75 years, the VU and FBP have always formed a Grand Conservative Coalition, with the exception of 1997-2005, in which they governed alone.

The results in 2009:

47.6% - 95.219 votes - VU
43.5% - 86.951 votes - FBP
  8.9% - 17.835 votes - FL

Eligible voters: 18.493
Total turnout: 15.650 (by absentee/postal ballot: 80.4%)
Turnout in %: 84.6

http://www.landtagswahlen.li/resultate.aspx?eeid=7&ukid=14

Voting will be open on Sunday for 1.5 hours from 10:30 am to 12:00

That has to be a record.

Burgenland doesn't like the draft much...

I've looked up and calculated a few more municipality results and some interesting conclusions can be drawn. Regarding Varna, it was indeed the city that was least supportive of Belene, with about 52.2% "yes", while the rest of the province voted about 63.8% in favor, but due to almost 75% of the votes being in Varna, it averages it out to 54.99% overall.

Franknburger's suggestion that areas with rival power plants might be opposed turned out to be right in some cases, though not where he expected it. For example, the municipality of Radnevo where the Maritsa Istok Complex, Bulgaria's largest coal-fired power plant, is partially located, voted against the Belene plant with about 53% of the votes. On the other hand, the municipality of Kozloduy, where Bulgaria's current nuclear plant is located, voted 79.2% in favor, despite the recent scare tactics to claim that their plant would be closed sooner if Belene were built (then again, having the former prime minister Kostov carry out this campaign was probably not the brightest idea).

Regarding the idea that  Danube settlements downstream of Belene would not like the plant, the evidence is not conclusive, though Svishtov, the town where 100 people died in an earthquake in 1977, supported it only by a narrow margin (53% yes).

Bit surprising that Coburn also didn't vote no.