Bulgarian Vote Fails to Produce Clear Winner

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/world/europe/bulgaria-election.html

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SOFIA, Bulgaria — After an apathetic vote to replace the government that resigned amid angry demonstrations and a bloody crackdown, the results on Monday showed that hopes for change were so low that only party hard-liners turned out to vote, handing another mandate to the same parties in the previous government.

With 96 percent of the vote counted Monday morning, the governing party of former Prime Minister Boiko Borisov had received 31 percent and the Socialist Party, the former Communists, 27 percent. Turnout was 53 percent, a record low, according to a survey by Alpha Research in Sofia.

But with no party winning enough support to govern alone, negotiations to form a stable government looked so daunting that commentators in Sofia are saying that the real fight for power has just begun.

Mr. Borisov and his government resigned in February after the largest protests in 15 years, with demands including better living standards, a more representative government, and an end to government corruption and incompetence. At the time, it seemed possible that Mr. Borisov’s political career might end. Now, a return to office seems possible.

But the other three parliamentary parties will not make it easy. Mr. Borisov looks completely isolated and the Socialist Party has said it would do whatever it could to prevent his party from returning to power and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms has said that it would not join. The xenophobic far-right Ataka Party has also said it would decline to participate.

Some Bulgarians linked the voter apathy to the failure of the protests to achieve real change.

While the protests provided an outlet for the public to express its grievances, said Blagoy Boychev, 27, an actor, “the protesters expected some grandiose changes which didn’t happen,” and disappointment increased as a result.

“Most of the Bulgarian people have exceptionally poor political literacy,” he said, drinking beer on a bench in a park at the Church of the Seven Saints in Sofia.

Accusations of corruption played out just before voting began with the announcement that 350,000 illegal ballots had been found in a printing plant owned by a city councilor from Mr. Borisov’s party, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, or GERB. The prosecutor’s office said the ballots had been ready for distribution to polling locations, but some news media reports disputed the claim.

The office has not specified for which electoral region or regions the ballots were printed.

The timing of the announcement — on Saturday, the so-called day of consideration, when campaigning and alcohol sales are banned before the polls open — raised claims that it had been intended to damage GERB, the ruling party.

The Central Electoral Commission declined to comment.

Sergei Stanishev, the head of the Socialists, called the illegal ballots a huge fraud that was “unique in scale and arrogance.” In a news conference, Mr. Stanishev said the government of Mr. Borisov, a former firefighter, karate champion and owner of a private security company, “has returned us to the 19th century.”

President Rosen Plevneliev, who is also from GERB, said the authorities should complete their investigation before people draw any conclusions. “I refer with confidence to the actions of institutions and support their efforts,” he said.

Atanas Lozanov, 64, a retired truck driver, had a different interpretation.

“It means that no one can fix this country, everything is corruption, and that no matter who wins the elections, it will be the same thing,” Mr. Lozanov said.

Charges of electoral fraud are not uncommon here. Since Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, the European Commission has been highly critical of it for failing to clean up its weak judicial system and systemic corruption.

“The mess is huge,” said Katerina Sakalova, 64, a retired teacher. “Our country is beautiful, but the state is so run down that I don’t see how it can be fixed in less than 10 years.”

Ms. Sakalova added, “I dream that things will change for the better for my grandchildren because I want them to live in Bulgaria and not have to leave.”