Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria

Right-wing party wins in Bulgarian election

SOFIA -- Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, who leads a right-wing party, said he is willing to take on any risk to form a government.

Borisov's statement came after the first results of Sunday's parliamentary election showed that his GERB party had claimed victory.

With 94% of the votes counted, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leads in none of Bulgaria's regions, the Central Electoral Commision (CEC) said on Monday.

A total of 87.329% of the votes have been processed as of 7.45 a.m. Monday.

The results are the following: GERB leads with 32.61%. Second comes the Socialist party (BSP) with 15.27%, followed by DPS - 14.96%, Reformist bloc - 8.87%.

The Patriotic Front has so far received 7.32% of the votes, Bulgaria without Censorship gets 5.58%, Ataka - 4.56%, and ABV - 4.18%.

The preliminary data of the Central Electoral Commission from 65.328% of the votes as of 5.15 a.m. Monday confirms that 8 parties will enter parliament after October 5 elections.

Two exit polls after voting finished in the Bulgarian elections on Sunday suggested that GERB, campaigning on a platform of stability following almost two years of political turmoil, was in the lead but without winning a majority.

...

A parallel tabulation of 98% of the votes, done by the Gallup agency and quoted by the BNT national broadcaster, shows that the ethnic Movement for Rights And Freedoms (DPS) is very close to becoming the second largest party in Bulgaria's Parliament.

According to the latest data, the Bulgarian Socialist Party gets 15.5% of the votes, while DPS gets 15.2%.

With no clear winner emerging from Sunday's early general elections, Bulgaria looks set for "further political instability", Agence France Presse said in its news coverage of the vote.

Center-right GERB, to which all exit polls ascribed victory in Sunday's early elections, enjoys support from most categories of age and education, data by pollsters Alpha Research and Gallup shows.

Both agencies were the first sources of exit polls at 19:00 EEST, when the ban on announcing preliminary results was lifted.

A parallel vote tabulation of 50% of the votes, done by the Alpha research agency shows that eight parties and coalitions will enter Bulgaria's Parliament.

The same number of parties enters Parliament, according to a parallel vote tabulation of 80% of the votes, done by Gallup.

Bulgaria's Reformist Bloc (RB) will support policies rather than parties or their leaders in possible talks on entering a government coalition, a leading RB member said on Sunday.

Bulgaria held early parliamentrary elections on Sunday, in which centre-right GERB party led by former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov won most votes but remained short of overall majority.