March 26 (SeeNews) - Centre-right GERB party won Sunday's early election in Bulgaria, garnering 32.2% of the votes against 28.0% for their main opponent, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), exit polls showed.
Besides BSP and GERB, four other political parties and coalitions will pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament, making it difficult to predict what the composition of the next cabinet will be, public TV broadcaster BNT reported, quoting exit polls by Alpha Research polling agency.
The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which represents mainly ethnic Turks and Muslims, was backed by 9.7%, while the United Patriots alliance had 9.5% support, the exit polls showed. Volya (Will) party, led by businessman Veselin Mareshki, received 5.1%, and 4.0% voted for the coalition between right-wing Reformist Bloc (RB) and Glas Naroden (Voice of the People) party.
Two other coalitions - the anti-corruption formation Yes, Bulgaria and the right-wing Nova Bulgaria - are close to entry in Parliament with 2.9% and 2.6% support, respectively.
GERB will wait for the final official election results to be announced before it says which political forces it would form a government with, GERB leader Boyko Borisov said at a news conference after polls closed.
"The only thing we shall not make a compromise with is interference in the domestic affairs [of the country]," Borisov said.
Bulgaria held early general elections on Sunday, four months after the resignation of the minority coalition cabinet led by GERB. GERB's cabinet stepped down in November after the party's candidate in the presidential elections, Tsetska Tsacheva, lost to the Socialists-backed candidate Rumen Radev. A caretaker government, led by former parliament speaker Ognyan Gerdjikov officially took office on January 27.