Bulgarians voted on Sunday in a parliamentary election they hope will restart reforms to combat endemic corruption and heal an economy severely damaged by the global crisis.
Opinion polls show the Socialist party that leads the current coalition government is likely to lose due to recession and a climate of impunity for crime bosses and politicians that has turned Bulgaria into the black sheep of the European Union.
Last year the ex-communist Balkan country, which joined the EU in 2007 and is the bloc's poorest member, lost access to over half a billion of euros in EU aid as punishment for graft. If opinion polls prove correct, the centre-right opposition party of Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov, GERB, will get a shot at forming a government, most likely another coalition.
Borisov, 50, a former bodyguard-turned-politician, has promised to tackle crime but observers are cautious because of his limited track record and concerns his ability to introduce reforms may be watered down in any coalition talks. His party now garners roughly 30 percent of the vote, pollsters say, against 20 percent for the ruling Socialists.
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