Bulgarians vote in elelction likely to prolong uncertainty

PanARMENIAN.Net - Bulgarians voted on Sunday, May 12, in an election marred by suspicions of rigging, with expectations of a close result that is likely to prolong uncertainty in the European Union's poorest country, Reuters reporetd.

The rightist GERB party, which resigned after violent demonstrations over poverty and corruption in February, is running neck-and-neck with the Socialists. That raises the possibility that neither might be able to form a coalition and could ultimately mean a new election.

Six years after Bulgaria joined the European Union, disaffection with the political elite is widespread in the country of 7.3 million. Unemployment is close to an eight-year high and one in four lives below the poverty line.

On the eve of the parliamentary election, state security officers seized 350,000 illegal ballot papers, increasing fears of rigging in the Balkan country, notorious for graft and organized crime.

Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev called the discovery an "unprecedented conspiracy against democracy" but President Rosen Plevneliev, an independent who has GERB's backing, told reporters that nobody would be able to get away with cheating.

A recent survey found that 12 percent of Bulgarians were willing to sell their votes. Because of worries over the process, five parties - not including GERB - have hired an Austrian company to carry out a parallel vote count.