Bulgaria's GERB-UDF wins snap vote with 24.7% - final results

Seven political formations, including two pro-Russian parties, crossed the 4% threshold for entry into the 240-seat unicameral National Assembly amid record-low voter turnout, according to data by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) based on 100% of the ballots counted.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which draws support mainly from Bulgarian ethnic Turk population, was backed by 17.07% of the voters.

The reformist coalition comprising We Continue the Change and Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) garnered 14.33% of votes, followed by the staunchly nationalist and pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party with 13.78%.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the populist party There is Such a People (TISP), led by musician and showman Slavi Trifonov, won 7.06% and 5.96% of the vote, respectively.

The pro-Russian nationalist party Velichie will enter the National Assembly for the first time after obtaining 4.65% of the vote, according to final CEC data.

Six formations will send representatives to the European Parliament.

GERB-UDF was backed by 23.54% of voters. MRF ranked second with 14.66% voter support, followed by 14.44% for WCC-DB.

Vazrazhdane gathered 13.98% of votes, followed by 7.01% for BSP, with TISP being the last party to enter European Parliament after securing 6.04%. Velichie did not win enough votes to have a representative in the European Parliament.

Bulgaria currently has 17 MEPs and will send the same number of representatives to the next European Parliament. To win a seat, political parties, coalitions or independent candidates must secure at least one-seventeenth of all valid votes.

In the elections for National Assembly, 63,911 voters indicated they did not support any of the twenty parties and eleven coalitions taking part. Roughly the same number, 63,859 voters, said they did not support any of the candidates for members of European Parliament, running in ten coalitions.

Voter turnout for National Assembly stood at 20.44% by 4 p.m. local time on Sunday, four hours before polling stations closed, and at 20.89% in the European Parliament elections, CEC data showed.

Polling agency Alpha Research put final voter turnout at 32.5% for the Bulgarian parliament and at 33.4% for the European Parliament.