GERB won a convincing victory, and five other parties secured legislative seats, according to provisional returns and exit poll results of Sunday's parliamentary elections in which 14 parties and 4 coalitions contested the 240 MP positions in the 41st National Assembly. The electoral threshold is 4 per cent of the valid votes.

The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced the following provisional returns based on 84.92 per cent of the tally sheets from the constituency electoral commissions countrywide:

- Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB): 40.62

per cent;

- Coalition for Bulgaria (CfB): 17.97 per cent;

- Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF): 13.32 per cent;

- Ataka: 9.17 per cent;

- The Blue Coalition: 6.90 per cent;

- Order, Lawfulness, Justice (OLJ): 4.15 per cent;

- Liberal Initiative for Democratic European Development

(LEADER): 3.20 per cent;

- National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS): 3.00 per

cent;

- The Greens: 0.54 per cent;

- Coalition For the Motherland (two parties: Democratic Citizens

- Initiative and The New Leaders): 0.29 per cent;

- Bulgarian Left Coalition: 0.21 per cent;

- Zashtita Union of Patriotic Forces: 0.16 per cent;

- Social Democrats: 0.12 per cent;

- Bulgarian National Union - New Democracy: 0.10 per cent;

- Party of Liberal Alternative and Peace - 0.08 per cent.

- The Other Bulgaria: 0.08 per cent;

- Alliance of Bulgarian Patriots: 0.05 per cent;

- National Movement for the Salvation of the Motherland: 0.05

per cent.

GERB won 42.3 per cent of the votes, which entitles it to 122-126 seats out of a total of 240, according to a parallel vote count reported on bTV. CfB won 17.6 per cent (40-42 seats), the MRF 12.7 per cent (34-36 seats), Ataka 8.4 per cent (18-19 seats), The Blue Coalition 6.8 per cent (14-15 seats), OLJ 4.1 per cent, LEADER 3.4 per cent, and the NMSS 2.9 per cent.

The National Public Opinion Centre (NPOC) reported the following quick count results: GERB 39.87 per cent, CfB 17.23 per cent, MRF 15.45 per cent, Ataka 9.39 per cent, The Blue Coalition 7.28 per cent, OLJ 4.13 per cent, LEADER 3.17 per cent, and NMSS 2.74 per cent.

The social analysts concluded that voters who stayed out of the June 7 European elections cast their votes for GERB.

Ninety-three per cent of the voters said that they voted both for the proportional representation list and for a majoritarian candidate, NPOC said. Seventy-six per cent of the respondents in the NPOC exit poll said that they chose the party for which they would vote in advance.

Sova Harris exit polls gave GERB 41.8 per cent (120 seats), CfB 17.1 per cent (39 seats), MRF: 13.2 per cent (35 seats), Ataka 9.6 per cent (22 seats), The Blue Coalition 6.3 per cent (14 seats), and OLJ 4.4 per cent (10 seats).

Of the 120 GERB MPs, 26 were elected as majoritarian candidates. The remaining four majoritarian candidates were returned to Parliament on the MRF ticket.

Alpha Research reported the following results of a parallel vote count, based on a 100 per cent sample: GERB 40.5 per cent (118 seats), CfB 18 per cent (41 seats), MRF 13.5 per cent (35 seats), Ataka 9.5 per cent (21 seats), The Blue Coalition 6.9 per cent (16 seats), OLJ 4.1 per cent (9 seats), LEADER 3.3 per cent, and NMSS 2.9 per cent.

The BBSS Gallup International released the following final exit poll results: GERB 39.5 per cent (112-120 seats), CfB 17.6 per cent (37-41 seats), MRF 13 per cent (34-38 seats), Ataka 9.8 per cent (20-22 seats), The Blue Coalition 7.5 per cent (16-18 seats), OLJ 4.6 per cent (8-10 seats), and LEADER 3.9 per cent. (8 seats, if they exceed the 4 per cent barrier).

A total of 4,144,341 Bulgarians, or 60.2 per cent of the eligible voters, turned out for the elections, the Central Electoral Commission said after receiving information from all 31 constituencies countrywide.

Voter turnout by constituency: Bourgas 67.27, Blagoevgrad 61.63 per cent, Varna 65.59 per cent, Veliko Turnovo 62.46 per cent, Vidin 53.57 per cent, Vratsa 60.33 per cent, Gabrovo 60.27 per cent, Dobrich 59.43 per cent, Kurdjali 45.22 per cent, Kyustendil 57.42 per cent, Lovech 62.17 per cent, Montana 57.01 per cent, Pazardjik 61.63 per cent, Pernik 61.51 per cent, Pleven 60.50 per cent, Plovdiv City 59.77 per cent, Plovdiv Region 61.86 per cent, Razgrad 58.99 per cent, Rousse, 57.91 per cent, Silistra 64.50 per cent, Sliven 55.90 per cent, Smolyan 63.18 per cent, Sofia City (Constituency No. 23) 64.42 per cent, Sofia City (Constituency No. 24) 53.47 per cent, Sofia City (Constituency No. 25) 54.22 per cent, Sofia Region 65.64 per

cent, Stara Zagora 61.12 per cent, Turgovishte 63.53 per cent, Haskovo 58.96 per cent, Shoumen 60.21 per cent, and Yambol 59.46 per cent.

In previous parliamentary elections, 5,699,960 voters (83.87 per cent) participated on October 13, 1991, 5,264,448 (75.23 per cent) on December 18, 1994, 4,291,066 (62.93 per cent) on April 19, 1997, 4,608,289 (67.03 per cent) on June 17, 2001, and 3,747,793 (55.76 per cent) on June 25, 2005.

Source: BTA; Photo: BGNES