SOFIA, June 25: Bulgaria’s opposition Socialists claimed victory over the ruling centrists in Saturday’s elections, but exit polls suggested they may struggle to form a government.

Any protracted coalition wrangling between parties could unsettle investors seeking quick economic and social reforms to secure EU entry in 2007 and increase impatience in a general population over poor living standards.

A Gallup exit poll for BTV television gave the ex-communists 32.2 percent of the vote versus 20.5 percent for ex-King Simeon Saxe-Coburg’s ruling National Movement for Simeon II (NMS). Earlier opinion polls had given the Socialists 40 percent, a vote that would have allowed them to form a government quickly.

“We have won the elections,” said Socialist deputy leader Rumen Petkov. “But the results are not satisfactory.”

Three other local polling agencies put the Socialists, led by progressive Sergei Stanishev, 39, at 30.7-32.1 percent and the NMS at 19.5-21.1 percent.

The next government must complete a mountain of difficult reforms under increased scrutiny from Brussels as scepticism over further EU expansion grows after recent French and Dutch rejections of the bloc’s constitution.

Although investors have praised Saxe-Coburg’s government as the best since the fall of communism, public discontent over poverty and crime forced the only ex-monarch to second place.

NATIONALISTS RISE: Analysts say the surprise emergence of the nationalist Attack party, seen winning 7-7.9 percent and crossing the threshold to parliament, may have undermined them.