Bulgarians vote in snap election to choose new government

Bulgarians vote to elect a new government to lead the Balkan country, just three months after the general election in April produced a fragmented parliament that failed to produce a working cabinet.

Opinion polls show that the centre-right GERB party, which has dominated Bulgaria's political life in the past decade, runs neck and neck with the newly established, anti-elite faction There Is Such a People, but neither could win an outright majority.

The vote underscores deep divisions in Bulgaria after a decade of political dominance by long-serving premier Boyko Borissov.

His centre-right GERB party appears tied with the new anti-establishment There Is Such a People party of TV host Slavi Trifonov at about 20-22% each, with opinion polls giving a tiny edge to the latter.

Even if GERB manages to nudge ahead, Borissov, 62, a former bodyguard of late Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, is unlikely to find allies to forge a coalition amid public anger over entrenched corruption, analysts say.

Support for ITN and two smaller anti-graft groupings, Democratic Bulgaria and Stand Up! Mafia Out!, has risen since April. But ITN and its potential partners may struggle to form a government without the support of some of the traditional parties.

The EU's poorest state, Bulgaria has had a long history of corruption, but a number of recent scandals and the imposition of U.S. sanctions last month against several Bulgarians for alleged graft have dominated the campaign.

The current interim government has accused Borissov's cabinet of spending billions of lives of taxpayer money without transparent procurement procedures among other shortcomings.

GERB denies wrongdoing and says such accusations are politically motivated. The interim cabinet was appointed by President Rumen Radev, a strong critic of Borissov, after the inconclusive April election.

Borissov says the interior minister is waging communist-era style "repressions" against GERB aimed at benefiting his rivals and that Sunday's vote is already being "rigged".

The three-times ex-prime minister held power for most of the period from 2009 till the April vote with a mixture of patronage and populism, his support underpinned by rising incomes and construction of much-needed highways. But his failure to address high-level corruption prompted massive protests last year.

Opinion polls show the Socialists and the ethnic Turkish MRF party will also enter the next parliament again.

(Source: Reuters)

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