Bulgaria’s sixth election in three years has once again left the parliament divided.
The centre-right Bulgarian Citizens for European Development (GERB) party is expected to win the most votes in Bulgaria’s general election but will need at least two coalition partners to form a government.
With 64% of votes counted in Sunday’s election, GERB was leading by a large margin with 23.65% of the vote, suggesting that the outcome of Bulgaria’s sixth general election in three years is unlikely to bring an end to the political instability that has plagued the country in recent years.
The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which primarily represents Bulgaria’s large Turkish minority, came in a close second with 15.89 percent of the vote, followed by the pro-Western Continuation of Change (PP) with 15.08 percent. The far-right Renaissance Party got 14.33 percent.
The vote comes as GERB seeks to form a government capable of implementing much-needed reforms to anchor the country more deeply in the European Union. The vote was triggered by the collapse of the GERB-PP coalition government in March after only nine months amid disputes over judicial reform and other issues.
“No one achieves success without acknowledging the help of others. We are confident and would like to express our gratitude for this help. Thanks GERB! Thanks to everyone who supported us!” Borisov wrote on his Facebook page after the exit polls were released.
Borissov led the country for more than a decade but lost power in 2021 amid mass anti-corruption protests that have plunged the country into political instability and caused fragile coalition governments to continually fail.
Successive governments have “failed to even maintain a coalition, let alone address problems such as the economic and demographic crises,” Al Jazeera’s Umm-e-Khursoom Sharif said.
The result has been a climate of distrust and fatigue. Turnout in Sunday’s election was the lowest since the end of communism, with just 30% voting.
“We are tired of the elections. We want stability and prosperity for the country,” Margarita Semerzieva, a 72-year-old pensioner, told AFP outside a polling station in the capital, Sofia.
Sunday’s vote took place in parallel with Bulgaria’s European Parliament elections, in which GERB also won the most support.
