Bulgaria's GERB-UDF wins snap vote with 25.37% - prelim results

Seven parties crossed the 4% threshold for entry into parliament, according to data by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) based on 99.40% of the ballots counted.

We Continue The Change (WCC), led by former prime minister Kiril Petkov, was backed by 20.21% of the voters. WCC was the winner of the November 2021 early general election.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), which is drawing support mainly from Bulgarian ethnic Turks and Muslims, received 13.66% backing, followed by the populist, nationalist and pro-Russian formation Vazrazhdane (Revival) with 10.17%.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) attracted 9.32% of voters, while the reformist Democratic Bulgaria coalition won 7.46%.

The only other formation to enter parliament is Bulgaria Rising, a political party recently founded by former caretaker prime minister Stefan Yanev, which obtained 4.64% of the vote, according to CEC data.

Populist formation There Is Such a People (TISP), headed by showman Slavi Trifonov who pulled out his ministers from Petkov's cabinet causing the most recent political crisis, gets 3.83%, thus falling short of the voter minimum. TISP won the snap vote in July 2021 with a margin of less than a percentage point ahead of GERB-UDF.

Voter turnout stood at 25.58% by 4 p.m. local time on Sunday, four hours before polling stations closed, CEC data showed.