GERB party

GERB party leader Boyko Borissov speaks during a-post-election press conference in Sofia, 5 April 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

On Thursday, GERB leader and former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov reconfirmed that he has stopped discussions with his opponents in "We Continue the Change" and Democratic Bulgaria on forming a government.

Electoral Engineering

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a press conference after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, 21 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/NECATI SAVAS

A total of 162 ballot boxes will be set up in Türkiye for Bulgarian citizens residing in the country as Bulgaria heads to the polls for parliamentary elections for the fifth time in the last two years.

Boyko Borissov, leader of Bulgaria's GERB party, speaks at a press conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, 4 October 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

Bulgaria's president dissolved the National Assembly on Thursday and called early parliamentary elections for April 2 in hopes of resolving the country's a bid to settle the country's prolonged political impasse and biting economic woes.

President Rumen Radevon also appointed a caretaker government ahead of the snap vote, which will be Bulgaria's fifth in two years.

Rumen Radev, Bulgarian president, running for a new mandate, in Sofia, 18 November 2021. Photo; EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

This will be the fifth general election in Bulgaria in two years and will be followed by mayoral elections later in 2023, which will test the centre-right GERB party's dominance in local administration.

Bulgaria will hold another parliamentary election - its fifth in two years - after the Socialist Party on Tuesday announced that it had failed to form a government and had returned the unfulfilled mandate to the country's president.

Opinion surveys indicate that Boyko Borissov's GERB party will top the popular vote at October's polls but will have a hard time finding partners to create a governing coalition because of its tarnished reputation.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov arrives for the European Council Summit in Brussels, Belgium, 24 March 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND

"We can't find 121 MPs who are not afraid", Petkov told the media, referring to the number needed for a majority in parliament, and the influence that criminal structures allegedly have on parliament.

Just two days after the ousting of PM Kiril Petkov in a no-confidence vote, Bulgarian legislators on Friday adopted a declaration which would allow their government to potentially lift its veto on starting EU membership talks for neighbouring North Macedonia.