Bulgaria’s political deadlock is likely to continue after no clear winner emerged from Sunday’s national election – the country’s second in three months.
The center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov is running neck and neck with the anti-establishment There Is Such a People party (ITN), at 23.91 percent and 23.66 percent respectively, according to partial results with around 95 percent of the votes counted by Bulgaria’s Central electoral commission.
The Socialists are in third with 13.63 percent, followed by the anti-corruption Democratic Bulgaria party at 12.55 percent. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), an ethnic Turkish party, is set for 10.59 percent, and Rise Up, Out with the Crooks is at 5.04 percent.
Political observers say Sunday’s tight results are likely to pose a similar challenge to the two leading parties.
“Just like after the April vote, I expect to see a highly fragmented parliament with not a single party able to form a Cabinet on its own,” said Genoveva Petrova, a Bulgarian sociologist and executive director of Alpha Research. / /argumentum.al
