New Anti-Corruption Party Leads in Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections

Co-leader of the We Continue the Change party, Kiril Petkov, votes on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

According to the Central Election Commission's interim results on Monday morning, We Continue the Change won 25.85 per cent of the vote, ahead of ex-premier Boyko Borissov's GERB in close second with 20.38 per cent.

"Bulgaria is taking a new path," said We Continue the Change co-leader Kiril Petkov, an entrepreneur who was Economy Minister between May and September in the country's caretaker government.

Petkov and Assen Vassilev, who was the temporary Finance Minister in the same period, founded We Continue the Change in late September. The party has made halting corruption, initiating better opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses and attracting of high-tech investments their main priorities.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms climbed to a third place with 15.66 per cent, according to the interim results.

But There is Such a Nation, which came out on top in the last parliamentary elections in July, slipped to a fourth position with 10.54 per cent - a result of the party's inability to muster a coalition to lead the country.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party stood at 5.94 per cent on Monday morning, while Democratic Bulgaria is had 5.94 per cent.

We Continue the Change are seen as natural partners of Democratic Bulgaria in a possible coalition and has expressed readiness to work with There's Such a Nation if the July winners are open to dialogue.

We Continue the Change would also need votes from the Bulgarian Socialist Party to muster a majority in parliament as it lost a potential partner in Stand Up.BG! We're Coming!, which did not reach the four per cent threshold to enter the legislature.

...