Bulgarian Left Seeks Election Comeback
Bulgarian voters went to the polls Sunday after a tight election race pitting Socialists seen as closer to Russia against two-times center-right premier Boyko Borisov, seeking another comeback.
Opinion polls in the European Union's poorest country, where the average monthly salary is just 500 euros ($540) and corruption is rife, also indicate a strong showing by nationalists.
The karate-kicking Borisov's enthusiastically pro-European Union GERB party and the Socialist Party (BSP), newly led by the energetic Kornelia Ninova, are both seen garnering around 30 percent.
"I voted for a stable, predictable and united Bulgaria," Borisov said after casting his ballot, adding: "Bulgarians must decide today who is fit to lead this kind of politics so let them choose."
Socialist chief Ninova denied that her party's perceived Russian sympathies would have any impact in power. "No foreign country, eastern or western, should be allowed to influence Bulgarian politics," she said.
In the ex-communist nation's third election in four years, many voters are turning away from the main parties towards groups on the fringes, or are not bothering to vote.
"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.
"That is why I voted for one of the smaller parties with the hope that they can act as a balance to the big ones."
Borisov, 57, once a bodyguard for Bulgaria's last communist leader, has long been the dominant figure in national politics, serving as premier from 2009 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2017.
In between, the BSP was in power for barely a year.
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 general backed by the BSP.
- 'Second-class member' -
If Ninova can become premier this raises the prospect of NATO member Bulgaria, which has long walked a tightrope between East and West, drifting more towards Moscow.
Ninova has said she is not content with Bulgaria being a "second-class member" of the EU and that she will veto an extension of EU sanctions on Russia.
Russia, with which Bulgaria has long had close cultural and economic ties, has been accused of seeking to expand its influence in other Balkan countries in recent months.
But Borisov has also said that he wants more "pragmatic" ties with Russia and Ninova, 48, insists that she remains committed to the EU.
"We are the party that ushered Bulgaria into the European Union and NATO and we stand by (our obligations in) these organizations," she told AFP in a recent interview.
- Turkey spat -
Whichever of the main parties come first will find it hard to form a coalition in what will likely be a highly fragmented parliament.
Both have ruled out a tie-up with the main MRF party representing Bulgaria's Turkish minority, expected to garner between eight and 11 percent of the vote.
Bulgaria is home to a 700,000-strong Muslim minority, most of them ethnic Turks, while at least 200,000 ethnic Turks with Bulgarian passports live in Turkey.
Turkey's support for a new party, Dost, which unlike the MRF fervently backs Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has fueled a spat in recent days.
This has boosted the United Patriots nationalists, who blocked the border on Friday to stop voters coming in from Turkey, and who may come third.
Another potential coalition partner is Veselin Mareshki, 49, a colorful populist who likes being called the Bulgarian Donald Trump.
The resulting government may not last long.
President Rumen Radev, elected in November and backed by the Socialists, said: "I hope the parties will show responsibility to form a government as soon as possible."
Bulgaria's interim premier Ognyan Gerdzhikov, added: "I really hope that there will be (a government) within a month."
Source: Agence France Presse
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