10/01/2022 22:15 (act 10/01/2022 22:15)
Former Prime Minister Borisov’s shadow also looms over this election ©APA/AFP
Bulgaria will elect a new parliament for the fourth time in a year and a half on Sunday. The vote became necessary because the Liberal-Socialist coalition government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov (PP) was overthrown by a vote of no confidence in June. Polls suggest a return of the corruption-ridden former prime minister Boyko Borissow and his bourgeois GERB. It is anxiously awaited how strongly the pro-Russian forces will fare.
Opinion polls put the PP party recently in power (“We keep moving”) in second place, with a good 16% of the vote. According to polls, Borisov’s GERB is likely to win the election by up to 25%. Borisov was elected out of the ranks of the opposing camp in April 2021 after allegations of corruption. 6.6 million voters are called to elect 240 deputies from candidates from 28 parties and alliances.
Thanks to proportional representation, up to eight parties, some of which are at odds, can enter the newly elected parliament. According to sociologists, the many undecided voters in polls can alter the results of the forecast.