Official Results of the Bulgarian European Elections Out

Well under 40% turn out and that is government figures of course. Locally here in Yambol there was an exit poll and a 16% figure was calculated. That aside, it is far more important with the July 5th date coming up for the National Parliamentary Elections where there is a slight more interest, but still not a lot.

Boiko Borissov’s party the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria, known by its Bulgarian abbreviation as GERB, got 24.36 per cent of the votes in the country’s European Parliament election and will have five seats, the Central Election Commission said, releasing final official results on June 10 2009.

Voter turnout in the election was 38.9 per cent, the commission said.

Second was the Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria, currently the majority partner in the national coalition Cabinet, which got 18.5 per cent in the June 7 vote and will have four MEPs.

Third was governing coalition partner the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, Ahmed Dogan’s party that is supported mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent, which got 14.14 per cent and will have three seats.

Volen Siderov’s ultra-nationalist party Ataka won 11.96 per cent, two seats. Also getting two seats is Simeon Saxe-Coburg’s National Movement for Stability and Progress, which got 7.96 per cent.

The centre-right Blue Coalition, brought into being by the Union of Democratic Forces’ Martin Dimitrov and Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria leader Ivan Kostov, got 7.95 per cent and will have one MP, but if the Lisbon Treaty comes into force and the number of Bulgarian MEPs is increased from the current 17, the 18th MEP will be from the Blue Coalition.

Bulgaria goes to the polls again on July 5 2009, to elect the country's 240-member National Assembly. The country's parliamentary system is unicameral.

Source: http://www.sofiaecho.com/