MOSCOW, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - The GERB party, headed by the former Pime Minister Boyko Borisov, leads Bulgaria’s parliamentary elections with 33.6 percent of votes, followed by the Socialist party (16.1 percent), the country’s Central Electoral Commission informed on its website.
Some 42 percent of votes have been counted so far.
The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which represents the interests of Muslim minorities, stands at 11.8 percent.
The Reformist bloc stands at 8.5 percent, followed by the Patriotic Front (7.5 percent) and Bulgaria Without Censorship (6 percent).
The nationalist Attack party has received some 5 percent of the votes and holds the 7th place, followed by the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival coalition (4.6 percent). Bulgaria has an electoral threshold of four percent.
Bulgaria’s unicameral parliament, the National Assembly, consists of 240 members. According to exit polls, GERB could get some 88-89 seats in this year's early elections. In all, 18 parties and seven coalitions and associations are listed on the ballots.
The GERB party was created in 2006 and received the majority of votes in the 2009 elections, and its leader Boyko Borisov assumed office as Prime Minister. After mass protests due to an increase in electricity prices, Borisov resigned in 2013.
During the 2013 elections, which were held two months ahead of schedule, four parties won seats in the parliament – GERB (30.5 percent of votes), the Coalition for Bulgaria, led by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (26.6 percent), Movement for Rights and Freedoms (11.3 percent) and Attack (7.3 percent).
Though GERB again received the majority of votes, the remaining three parties formed a ruling coalition and the Socialist Party’s Plamen Oresharski became Prime Minister. Oresharski resigned in June 2014 after months of political turmoil.
Moscow has expressed hope that work on the South Stream gas pipeline, which was delayed in August, will continue after elections are over in Bulgaria and a new team of Commissioners of the European Commission is appointed.
