Sofia - Voting has ended Sunday in Bulgaria's parliamentary
elections with exit polls projecting an opposition victory amid a
lively turnout.
Agencies taking exit polls predicted that the GERB party of Sofia
Mayor Boyko Borisov defeated Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's
Socialists with 30 to 20 per cent of votes won.
But GERB was not expected to come anywhere near a clear-cut
victory. With three or four smaller parties also expected to
qualify for the legislature by winning at least 4 per cent of the
votes, the poll is likely to pave the way for long, multi-party
coalition talks.
Stanishev's three-way government coalition guided Bulgaria to
European Union membership in 2007, but has failed to clean up the
corruption and organized crime, which Borisov has harped on.
Stanishev's position was further aggravated by the global economic
crisis, which has hit hard in Bulgaria, the EU's poorest state by
far.
However, the reliability of exit polls is questionable,
particularly as Bulgaria uses a complicated, mixed electoral system.
The first certain results are not expected before Monday morning.
The turnout was noticeably higher than four years ago, with nearly
50 per cent of the 6.8 million voters casting their ballot by 5 pm,
with two hours remaining in the election.
Election day was, as expected, marred by allegations of
irregularities, particularly vote-buying, a practice in which parties
pay leaders in poor communities, mostly among the Roma, to secure
their support on election day.
Police launched an investigation against several people accused of
buying and selling votes in European parliament elections, held a
month ago, in which GERB also claimed the most votes.
Bulgaria joined NATO in 2004 and the EU three years later, but
remains plagued by poverty and widespread corruption, which last year
spurred Brussels into suspending or scrapping a billion dollars worth
of aid.
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