SOFIA
Preliminary results indicate that a clear result remained elusive in Bulgaria’s second early general elections in the last two years as ballot boxes closed at 7 p.m. Sunday.
An estimated 44 percent of the seven million registered voters went to the 11,000 polling stations.
First predictions of the result hint that no single political party would be able to form the government with a clear majority on its own. Public research organizations said that the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), led by Boyko Borisov, won 33.2 percent of the votes; the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won 16.5 percent and the ethnic-Turkish Movement For Rights and Freedoms party (DPS) won 14.1 percent.
The political battle for the 240 seats in the National Assembly is between 22 parties that are part of eight coalitions.
According to the National Statistical Institute, around 590,000 Turks live in Bulgaria that constitutes 8.8 percent of the country’s entire population.
A caretaker government has been in place in the country since last August as the country struggles with political instability.
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