Bulgaria swings right, punishes Socialists for corruption

Jul 6, 2009, 8:06 GMT

Sofia - Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov's opposition GERB party smashed the corruption-plagued Socialist Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev's coalition in elections Sunday and is set to head the next government.

GERB, founded only three years ago and untested in previous elections in Bulgaria, won 40 per cent of the votes amid a lively turnout. But it will need a coalition partner to reach a majority in the 240-seat parliament, according to preliminary official results announced Monday.

Borisov immediately said he was 'assuming responsibility for Bulgaria's future' and promised to put a cabinet together swiftly.

Another centre-right bloc, the Blue Coalition, claimed 6.7 per cent and has already offered its allegiance to Borisov.

Though Stanishev led Bulgaria to European Union membership in 2007, his Socialists paid the price for failing to curb rampant corruption and crime and won only 17.7 per cent of the votes.

Widespread abuse led the EU to suspend or cancel 1 billion dollars in aid to Bulgaria last year, which has badly hurt the cash-strapped nation, particularly as its economy also went into reverse.

Angered Bulgarians harshly punished one of Stanishev's junior partners, the National Movement party of former premier and abdicated king Simeon II. The party received less than 4 per cent of the vote, ousting it from parliament.

The third party from the outgoing coalition, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms held steady at 14.5 per cent by leaning on its ethnic Turkish reservoir of votes.

The xenophobic, anti-EU party won 9.4 per cent, while another new right-wing party called Order, Law, Justice only just cleared the 4- per cent hurdle and qualified for the legislature.