Projections from the early hours of the day indicate that the coalition of the pro-Russian former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is on the way to winning a convincing victory in the snap parliamentary elections in the country, writes DPA.
The left-of-center coalition "Progressive Bulgaria" (PB), led by Radev, who resigned in January in order to be able to run in the elections, is on the way to winning up to 45% of the votes, according to several polling agencies.
This would give PB up to 140 deputies in the 240-seat parliament, enough for a single-party majority, according to forecasts.
The pro-Western center-right coalition GERB-SDS, leading the last government, and the pro-European alliance PP-DB are vying for second place with 12% to 13%, according to pollsters cited by DPA. DPS will likely also pass the 4 percent threshold required to enter parliament, with up to 7% of the vote.
PP-DB organized the mass demonstrations in December, which ultimately led to the fall of the previous government, DPA notes, pointing out that the elections in the country, a member of the EU and NATO, were held after a short pre-election campaign, which was dominated by concerns about inflation and corruption, which Radev promised to eliminate.
The US and the UK have imposed sanctions on the influential DPS leader Delyan Peevski for alleged corruption activities.
According to forecasts, the pro-Russian far-right party "Vazrazhdane" will record a drop to around 4%, which represents a sharp decline compared to 13.3% in 2024.
The snap elections were the eighth parliamentary elections in the country in the last five years. The official final results are expected to be announced by Thursday.