Bulgaria’s Socialist Party won the national parliamentary elections Saturday, but fell short of the clear majority needed to form a government to lead Bulgaria into the European Union in 2007.
With 99.6 percent of the vote counted, official results showed the Socialists won 31 percent, much lower than the pre-election forecasts of 40 percent. The NMS Centrists led by Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg claimed 19.88 percent.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) claimed third with 12.68 percent of the vote. President Georgi Parvanov will give the Socialists a first go at forming a government this week and has urged parties to cooperate and press on with the urgent EU reforms.
Analysts have said a grand coalition including the Socialists and the NMS would be good for the accession agenda. BSP led by Sergei Stanishev opened the door to all players except the nationalist Attack party, which won surprisingly more than 8 percent of the vote.
The final results, including party seat allocations, are expected to be announced by Wednesday at the latest, although the official deadline is July 2.