Bulgaria kicks off parliamentary elections

Sofia, Oct 5: Voting for Bulgaria's parliamentary elections began Sunday, with opinion polls predicting a coalition government.

About 6.88 million voters will vote across the country to elect 240 lawmakers from among 6,000 candidates drawn from 18 political parties and seven coalitions, Xinhua reported.

Results of the exit polls will be announced immediately after polls close. Official results are expected Thursday.

Kolyo Kolev, director of the Mediana Polling Agency, told Xinhua that a survey showed 31 percent of voters would support GERB party, 21 percent would back the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) while the ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) would get 13-14 percent.

The rest of the votes would go to four minor parties.

GERB, which ruled Bulgaria from July 2009 to March 2013, won 97 seats at parliamentary elections in May last year but lost power in July.

IANS