Boyko Borisov, the karate-chopping comeback specialist of Bulgarian politics, appeared to have pulled it off again Sunday with the two-time premier’s pro-EU centre-right party coming first in a snap election.

Borisov’s Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party won 33 percent of the vote, projections from polling institutes showed.

The Socialist Party (BSP), seen as closer to Russia, garnered 28 percent. Official results were expected from Monday.

Whether Borisov, 57, the burly former firefighter and ex-mayor of Sofia with the common touch, can form a government — and one that lasts — remains to be seen.

“I hope we can ensure the rapid formation of a government that responds to the wishes of the people and to the grave international situation,” Borisov said late Sunday

“We have to make sure that the nation is united.”

The European Union’s poorest country, where the average monthly salary is just 500 euros ($540) and corruption is rife, has now seen three elections in four years.

Borisov, once a bodyguard for Bulgaria’s last communist leader, has long dominated national politics, serving as premier from 2009 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2017.

Both times Borisov quit early, first in 2013 after mass protests and then last November after his candidate for the presidency was beaten by an air force commander backed by the BSP.

BSP disappointment

The BSP managed to almost double its score from the last election — Borisov’s was roughly the same — under new leader Kornelia Ninova, although exit polls had suggested a tighter race.

A victory for the Socialists would have raised the prospect of the NATO member of 7.4 million people in south-eastern Europe tilting closer to Russia.

A newspaper cartoon had depicted Ninova riding a Trojan Horse with Russian President Vladimir Putin hiding inside.

Russia, which has long had close cultural and economic ties with its Slavic cousins in Bulgaria, has recently been accused of seeking to expand its influence in other Balkan countries.

Ninova had said she was not content with Bulgaria being a “second-class member” of the EU and that she would veto an extension of sanctions imposed by Brussels on Moscow.

But Borisov also said during the campaign that he wanted more “pragmatic” ties with Russia and Ninova, 48, insisted that she remained committed to the EU.

“The pro-Western consensus has been preserved,” Parvan Simeonov from the Gallup polling institute told BNT public television.

“Russia’s heightened foreign policy ambitions played a role in mobilising the electorate.”

Votes for sale

The scourge of graft — ever-present in Bulgaria — loomed over the poll, with prosecutors saying 79 electoral fraud probes had been launched.

The Nova television channel said it had filmed ballots being offered for sale for as little as 15 euros. Voter apathy and disillusionment with the main parties were also widespread.

“The big parties are totally disconnected from the reality of what is going on in Bulgaria and that is outright irresponsible,” said IT worker Alexander Naydenov, 35.

Forming a government for Bulgaria — which will hold the EU presidency in the first half of 2018, just as the bloc negotiates Britain’s exit — will not be easy for Borisov.

In the campaign, he ruled out a tie-up with the centrist Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MDL) party representing Bulgaria’s Turkish minority which came third or fourth with around 9.5 percent.

Potential partners include the United Patriots, also on around 9.5 percent, and Veselin Mareshki, who likes being called the Bulgarian Donald Trump, although it was unclear whether his Volya party had passed the minium four percent to enter parliament.

Dost, a new Turkish party which unlike the main MDL won open backing from Ankara, much to the annoyance of Sofia and nationalists, appeared to have missed the four-percent minimum for seats in parliament

source : gulfnews