Bulgarian Center-Right, Pro-European Parties Await Seat Allocations After Tight Vote

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov casts his vote at a polling station in Bankya, on the outskirts of Sofia, on April 2.

Former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's center-right GERB party has finished with small lead over the pro-European We Continue the Change -- Democratic Bulgaria coalition, based on final results from the April 2 elections, but control of parliament will remain uncertain until seats are allocated.

With votes from all precincts counted, according to figures released the Central Election Commission (TsIK) on April 3, no party was in position to gain a majority in parliament and the number of seats that each party will receive will be announced later in the week.

The GERB party had 26.51 percent of the vote, according to the TsIK. We Continue The Change-Democratic Bulgaria was second with 24.54 percent.

Revival, a far-right, pro-Kremlin nationalist party that advocates for Bulgaria to exit both NATO and the EU, was third with 14.15 percent.

The Movement For Rights And Freedoms, a center-right party representing ethnic Turks and other Muslims, had 13.72 percent.

Rounding out the parties that appear to be in position to enter parliament were the Bulgarian Socialist Party, with 8.94 percent of the vote, and the populist There Is Such A People party, with 4.11 percent.

Turnout was listed at 40.6 percent.

The close results of the snap elections -- Bulgaria's fifth parliamentary vote in two years -- mean the impoverished and corruption-ridden country will struggle to break the political gridlock it continues to face as war rages in nearby Ukraine.

Bulgaria has been governed mainly by caretaker governments appointed by President Rumen Radev since public anger over years of corruption boiled over into massive protests in 2020. In February, Radev dissolved parliament and announced the April 2 vote.

In June, the pro-Western government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov fell after a no-confidence vote in parliament after only six months in power.

Petkov and his fragile coalition took over in December 2021 following eight months of political impasse and two interim administrations after protests against high-level corruption ended Borisov's decade-long rule.

The political crisis has prompted Bulgaria to postpone adopting the euro by one year to 2025.

The Balkan country of nearly 8 million is also struggling with rampant inflation that is hampering an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lead-up to the vote was marred by a spate of bomb threats that forced the closure of hundreds of schools set to function as polling stations.