Bulgaria’s Gerb party has won the October 27 snap general election with between 24% and 27% of the vote, exit polls indicated. The party’s leader, three-times former prime minister Boyko Borissov, said he could form a coalition with everyone in the new parliament, except for the far-right pro-Russian Vazrazhdane. 

Gerb will have around 70 out of 240 MPs in parliament – far short of the number it needs to form a government without coalition partners. 

Second came pro-Western reformist Change Continues-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) with 14% of the vote, which would give the formation 37 MPs. Vazrazhdane came third with 13.4% and would have 35 MPs, according to an exit poll by Alpha Research based on 70% of parallel vote counting.

The two factions of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) – DPS – New Beginning and the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS) – ranked fourth and fifth respectively. DPS New Beginning is set to have 25 MPs versus 24 MPs for APS.

The pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is fifth with 21 MPs, followed by populist There Are Such People (ITN) with 17 MPs and the SWORD party with 11 MPs.

In a statement after the exit polls were released, Borissov said that he is willing to form a coalition with any party except Vazrazhdane. 

Since Gerb has a significant advantage, Borissov said he is willing to lead another government. He stressed that it was Gerb, and him personally, who brought Bulgaria into the eurozone’s waiting room. Borissov also claimed his party has the best contacts in Brussels and is the only one that can bring the country into the eurozone.

He rejected a proposal by CC-DB for a non-party prime minister and accused the formation, which was Gerb’s partner in the previous parliament, of trying to dictate conditions to the election winner.

CC-DB’s leaders also made a short statement, saying Gerb must make the first step and propose a formula for a future regular government. They did not say whether the formation is willing to participate in coalition with Gerb.

According to political analyst Daniel Smilov, the two formations can join forces and rule together only if DPS – New Beginning’s leader Delyan Peevski is excluded from any formal or informal governance. 

This comes after multiple accusations that Peevski paid voters; Gerb has also been accused of vote-buying.

The other option, according to Smilov, would be for Gerb to propose a minority government and get the support of Peevski and several of the smaller parties.

However, Borissov also gave an indication he might simply push the country to its eighth election since April 2021 if nine parties make it into the already highly fragmented parliament. He said that in that case a government will not be possible.

The turnout on October 27 was higher than in June – 37.5% compared to the all times low 34.4% in the previous snap vote.