Bulgaria election: Exit polls suggest victory for ex-PM Boyko Borissov’s GERB party

Exit polls in Bulgaria suggest that the GERB party of ex-premier Boyko Borissov, a party blamed for presiding over years of corruption, is the likely winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary election on Sunday.

The surveys by Gallup International and Alpha Research showed the centre-right party obtaining between 24.6%-25.5% of ballots.

GERB’s main rival, the reformist pro-Western We Continue the Change party, led by Kiril Petkov, whose coalition government collapsed in June, came second with 18.9-19.9% according to the exit polls.

It could take days before the final official results are announced. If they confirm the exit polls, Borisov will be handed a mandate to form his fourth cabinet.

It will be an uphill task for him to produce a stable governing coalition, however, since most political groups have in advance rejected any cooperation with his GERB party.

The early election came after a fragile coalition led Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed afterward that Moscow had used “hybrid war” tactics to bring his government down after it refused to pay gas bills in roubles and ordered an expulsion of Russian diplomats from Bulgaria.

The election was the nation’s fourth in under two years, with many voters looking for predictability from a former leader amid steep inflation and energy costs.