Independent candidate Ivo Nesrovnal was elected as the new mayor of Bratislava in the local elections, defeated two main favourite candidates, incumbent mayor Milan Ftacnik and actor-turned-politician Milan Knazko, announced by the Central Electoral Commission on Sunday.

According to the official results, Nesrovnal gained 50,630 votes, Ftacnik garnered 40,481.

Nesrovnal's program includes a recovery of the Bratislava city spa Groessling, the setting-up of a "construction police", a pet cemetery and the inclusion of rail in the city transport mix with the introduction of an S-Bahn, a rapid rail transit system, in Bratislava.

Among other things, he also wants to impose regulations on the coloring of building facades and "change the orientation of city police from issuing parking fines to protection of people on the streets."

The result of Nesrovnal's success also symbolizes a massive success for independent candidates in local elections, derived from official results of the elections as released by the CEC.

Independent candidates gained as much as 37.95 percent of the mayoral seats throughout Slovakia, followed by the governing Smer-SD with 29.11 percent, the Christian Democrats (KDH) 4.19 percent, the ethnic-Hungarian SMK 3.67 percent, and Most-Hid 2.99 percent. The coalition of Smer-SD and KDH gained 2.33 percent of all mayoral seats in Slovakia.

When it comes to the number of local councillors, independent are on top again with 28.91 percent, followed by Smer 24.68 percent, KDH 10.55 percent, SMK 5.57 percent, the Slovak National Party (SNS) 4.05 percent, and Most-Hid 3.99 percent. The voters turnout in local elections was 48.34 percent.