Post date: Oct 25, 2010 5:35:7 PM
A doctor from Ghana is elected mayor of the Slovenian city of Piran, becoming the first black mayor in eastern Europe.
PIRAN, SLOVENIA (OCTOBER 24, 2010) POP TV SLOVENIA - A doctor from Ghana was elected mayor of the Slovenian city of Piran on Sunday (October 24), becoming the first black mayor in an eastern European country.
Peter Bossman, 54, topped the ballot in the picturesque seaside city in a tight second round of voting, narrowly beating the centre-right incumbent to the post.
"I am very proud and I would like to thank the citizens, and also all the women and men who worked in my campaign. These guys were working around the clock for days and this victory is not just mine but also theirs," said Bossman.
Bossman came to Slovenia 33 years ago as a medical student -- but never returned to Ghana after marrying a fellow student and getting his first job as a doctor for tourists visiting the Slovenian seaside.
Some 12 percent of people living in Slovenia were born abroad -- but only a fraction come from Africa.
In 1992 Slovenia erased 25,671 people from the official records because they had failed to apply for Slovenian citizenship after the country gained its independence.
Many of the "erased" had come to Slovenia from other parts of Yugoslavia and were left without basic human rights.
But the government this year passed a measure to allow them to regain their residency status, following pressure from local and international human right groups.