SOFIA: A new centrist anti-corruption party appears to be the winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary election, the country’s central electoral commission said on Monday.

With nearly 76pc of the ballots counted, results showed that the We Continue the Change party, founded a few weeks ago by two Harvard graduates, has captured 25.3pc of the vote, edging out the opposition center-right GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov by nearly 3pc.

Corruption is a huge issue in Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out last year to protest when GERB was the ruling party, complaining about official corruption in the nation of 7 million people. After Bulgaria held inconclusive general elections in April and July and politicians could not form a government many hoped that this third vote would result in a government that can lead Bulgaria out of its health and economic crises.

Five other parties made it into the 240-seat chamber, according to the latest results. They include the ethnic Turkish MRF party with 13.7pc support, the Socialist Party with 10.3pc, the anti-elite There is Such a People party with 9.7pc, the liberal anti-corruption group Democratic Bulgaria with 5.9pc, and the nationalist Revival party with 5pc.

If these results are confirmed by the final count, Kiril Petkov, the 41-year-old leader of We Continue the Change, will be handed a mandate to form a new government.

Petkov and his co-chair of the party, Asen Vasilev, 44, who both served as ministers of economics and of finance in the last caretaker cabinet, have highlighted misuse of state funds in a series of anti-graft actions, which have earned them wide public approval.

Analysts are attributing the new party’s unexpected victory to its pledges to bring transparency, zero tolerance for corruption and reforms to key sectors.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2021