Vote Too Close To Call In Bulgaria's Pivotal Parliamentary Elections

SOFIA -- The race between the two top rivals in Bulgaria's parliamentary elections appears too close to call, as exit polls by two leading firms indicate that former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's center-right GERB party has just a small lead over Kiril Petkov's liberal We Continue The Change-led alliance.

Bulgaria's bTV, working with Alpha Research, reported that GERB has 25.9 percent of the vote, while We Continue the Change -- which has set an alliance with the rightist Democratic Bulgaria party -- has 24.8 percent in its exit poll.

BNT, working with Gallup International, had similar indications, with GERB at 24.4 percent and We Continue The Change at 23.4 percent.

Both polls earlier had We Continue The Change in front by a similar margin.

The Movement For Rights And Freedoms was third in both exit polls with around 14 percent.

Preliminary voting tallies are expected to be released on April 3.

WATCH: Bulgaria holds the fifth parliamentary elections in two years on April 2. News agencies filmed early voters in the capital, Sofia. The political camps are deeply divided over topics such as arms supplies to Ukraine, euro adoption, and corruption cases linked to the tenures of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

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The vote is the country’s fifth parliamentary poll in two years. Preelection opinion polls suggested the vote would again fail to deliver a result that will break the political gridlock gripping the EU’s poorest nation.

More than 5,600 candidates representing 14 political parties and seven party coalitions are registered for the election to the 240-member National Assembly, Bulgaria's single-chamber parliament. A party must secure at least 4 percent of ballots cast to secure seats in parliament.

Turnout was expected to be low due to voters' apathy and disillusionment with politicians, as well as a spate of bomb threats this week that forced the closure of hundreds of schools set to function as polling stations for the April 2 vote.

WATCH: There are concerns over possible political fraud after it was decided Bulgarians voters would be able to use paper ballots as well as electronic voting machines that are considered less susceptible to manipulation.

Bulgaria Vote Could Be 'Messy' With Return Of Paper Ballots

Voting appeared to be held under peaceful conditions. Officials said problems with the use of voting machines stood out among voter complaints in the early going.

According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), as of 1:20 p.m. on April 2, a total of 65 machines out of a total of 9,611 in the country were out of service, forcing a switch to paper balloting at those locations, the CEC said.

Commission spokeswoman Rositsa Mateva said a variety of issued affected the voting machines, including the reading of smart cards and sensitivity of displays, and that more technical problems were expected before the close of voting.

The vote was being monitored by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe who will hold a press conference on April 3 to present their preliminary conclusions.

"We are going to have a very difficult electoral night," predicted political scientist Daniel Smilov in comments earlier this week to RFE/RL. "I hope that the government will manage to prevent widespread manipulation."

Smilov, an associate professor at the University of Sofia, said before the exit poll results that the vote was unlikely to end the country's political impasse.

"Unfortunately, I don't see a kind of easy and very fast resolution to the situation," he said.

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Most polls found former Prime Minister Borisov’s center-right GERB party running neck-and-neck at around 26 percent with its main rival, Petkov’s liberal We Continue The Change party.

"We have the greatest opportunities for maneuver," Borisov said on April 2 after casting his ballot in Bankya.

For his part, Petkov told journalists that he voted for "a normal European life."

"I voted to have a normal European government," he said after voting in Sofia.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service and AP