SOFIA:Struggling with one of Europe’s worst COVID-19 surges, Bulgaria on Sunday faced tough talks towards forming a government after exit polls showed no clear winner emerged in the country’s third parliamentary election this year.
The centre-right GERB party of former Premier Boyko Borissov was ahead in three surveys. Alpha Research’s exit poll showed GERB ahead with 24.8%, while Gallup International saw the new centrist faction, We Continue the Change, coming first with 25.7%. The other exit polls showed GERB leading with about 23.5%-24.7% of the vote.
Political wrangling has prevented GERB’s opponents from building a government in the previous two elections in April and July and Bulgarians have grown increasingly tired of the political impasse which was seen hampering their country’s economic prospects and euro ambitions.
The close poll results on Sunday underscore deep political divisions after a decade of Borissov’s rule.
The election coincides with high energy costs and anger at widespread corruption in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member. And while new COVID cases https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/bulgaria are dropping from a record high, hospitals are still overwhelmed and the death rate remains one of the highest in the EU.
Even if official results confirm GERB as the largest party, with no obvious allies in parliament, its chances of forging a ruling coalition are marginal, political observers say.
“We see a complex, fragmented picture. The question remains if all GERB’s opponents would stick to their pledges to avoid supporting GERB for a government. If that is the case, we will be facing a three or four-party coalition,” political analyst Daniel Smilov said.
In the presidential vote also held on Sunday, incumbent Rumen Radev, a harsh critic of Borissov, was seen winning around 49% support in the first-round vote, two exit polls showed.
The new faction may be better positioned to forge a coalition with the support of likely partners in two small anti-graft groupings and the Socialists, thereby ending a prolonged political impasse in the Balkan country.
This new centrist party, We Continue the Change, was set up by two Harvard-educated entrepreneurs, Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev in September.
“We are promising zero corruption. This is what we are going after. No small tolerance, nothing, zero,” Petkov told Reuters.
Three exit polls showed an ultranationalist party, Revival, which strongly opposes COVID-19 restrictions, crossing the 4% threshold for entering parliament.
Voter turnout was at record low, about 25.5% three hours before polls closed, data from the electoral commission showed. Analysts said political apathy and fear of the coronavirus pandemic could keep voter turnout at historically low levels of about 40%. Partial official results are due after midnight.
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