Bulgaria’s GERB party narrowly ahead in national vote: Exit polls

The centre-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and a new populist party were neck-and-neck in exit polls.

No clear winner emerged from Bulgaria’s parliamentary election on Sunday, exit polls showed, with the centre-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov narrowly ahead of the new anti-elite party There Is Such a People (ITN). Surveys by Gallup International and Alpha Research showed GERB at 22.1 percent to 23.5 percent, and ITN, led by popular TV host and singer Slavi Trifonov, on 21.5 percent to 22.3 percent in the election, Bulgaria’s second in three months. The close exit poll results underscore deep divisions over the legacy of Borissov’s decade-long rule, amid growing anger at widespread corruption in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member.