SOFIA/BURSA
Four parties won seats in the Bulgarian parliament according to early results as neither one winning a majority needed to form a government.
Bulgaria's Central Election Commission announced the results of 69 percent of the votes.
Center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) held the lead with 31,3 percent of the votes, while Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) followed getting 27,3 percent.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), party of Turkish minority got 9,1 percent of the votes and followed by Attack, the far right party, by 7,5 percent. Final results will be announced today.
Those four parties guaranteed to enter the 240-member parliament. GERB is expected to have 96, BSP 86, MRF 34 and Attack 24 deputies. President Rosen Plevneliev is predicted to ask GERB to form the government primarily.
BSP Chairman Sergei Stanishev said they would like to form a government as soon as possible in order to take Bulgaria out of the crisis. MRF Chairman Lutvi Mestan said they had a big victory and the claim that MRF was an ethnic-based party fell down.
Number of registered voters was 6 million 868 thousand 455, and voter turnout remained at 46,4 percent, 38 parties and 7 coalitions competed at the election. A total of 53,000 votes were cast in Turkey, much less than in 2009 parliamentary elections when 94,000 votes were cast in Turkey.
According to the constitution, government should have the support of at least 121 deputies in order to inaugurate. Some small parties were also expected to pass the threshold, since the electoral threshold is 4 percent in the country.
MRF is expected to play a key role at the formation of the government.
Meanwhile, 350,000 illegal ballot papers that were seized a day before the elections sparked accusations as 13,900 domestic and 280 foreign observers monitored the elections.
