The results of Bulgaria’s European Parliament elections on June 7 2009 were expected to confirm the upward trajectory of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov’s party, and while many elections around the EU seemed characterised by apathy, it seemed clear that as in Bulgaria, those who made the effort to vote wanted to send a clear political signal.
 
In spite of the ban on the publication of exit polls before the formal end of voting – domestic law further complicated by European Parliament election rules intended to see all EU countries’ results released simultaneously after polls have closed everywhere in the bloc – the now-customary practice of coded reports indicating trends was being practised in Bulgaria.
 
Websites using puns on parties’ names and identities suggested that opinion polls published ahead of voting in Bulgaria would be vindicated.
 
These ahead-of-election polls said that Borissov’s party would win the largest share of Bulgaria’s European Parliament seats, about six, followed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – the party led and supported in the main by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent – and then Ataka, Volen Siderov’s ultra-nationalist party. Opinion surveys before the election also suggested that the centre-right Blue Coalition could win at least one seat.
 
Voting in Bulgaria, reported to have reached a national voter turnout of just more than 28 per cent at 5pm, two hours before polls closed, was marred by a number of allegations of irregularities.
 
These included allegations of vote-buying in a number of places. Siderov’s Ataka was reported to have filed a formal complaint against vote-buying in Blagoevgrad.
 
By late afternoon on June 6, more than 50 formal complaints had been made to Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission.
 
Bulgarian news agency Focus said that one complaint had been about advertising banners on the internet. These were removed in co-operation with the Interior Ministry.
 
The Commission had also considered the case of the deputy mayor of the town of Kyustendil who moved a polling station from its usual place to another place without permission. The polling station was returned to its designated site, unlike the mayor, who is to be dismissed from his post.
 
Elsewhere in South Eastern Europe, polls put opposition socialist party Pasok ahead of prime minister Costas Karamanlis’s New Democracy party. If the opinion polls are confirmed, it will be a further blow to Karamanlis, who has presided over a number of scandals, aggravated by the violent protests in Athens around the turn of the year, and who has faced strident opposition calls for an early election.
 
In Bulgaria’s northern neighbour Romania, voter turnout was reportedly low, said to be less than 15 per cent by 4pm Bucharest time, while the two governing coalition partners the Democratic Liberals and Social Democrats were reportedly poised to get similar shares of the vote.
 
Overall, the results of the June 4 to 7 2009 European Parliament elections were predicted to produce the largest share of votes for centre-right parties, which in the context of the outgoing parliament would mean that the larger bloc would be the European People’s Party-European Democrats group. However, this could be complicated depending on the performance of a rival centre-right group formed by UK Tory leader David Cameron.
 
The countries with the largest shares of European Parliament seats are Germany, Italy, France, Poland and the UK, and in the first three, voters were expected to hand most of their ballots to the governing centre-right parties.
 
While German chancellor Angela Merkel, polls said, would lead her CDU-CSU coalition to a victory in European Parliament elections – a possible boost for federal parliamentary elections later this year, and French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s party was similarly said to be set for victory, many eyes were on the performance of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party.
 
Berlusconi was plagued by allegations in the media of an inappropriate relationship with a teenage model, allegations that he has denied, and the June 7 vote was seen as a referendum on the prime minister. However, the most recent polls predicted that he would win, albeit possibly by a margin smaller than had there been no scandal.
 
In the UK, Gordon Brown’s Labour Party was set for an abysmal showing in the European Parliament elections. While this has been widely expected, official results will fuel already fierce calls for the ouster of Brown and new parliamentary elections, notwithstanding the embattled prime minister’s moves in recent days to reshuffle his cabinet – a matter in which his hand was forced by resignations – and notwithstanding his defiant stance that he would stay on.
 
In Poland, the governing Civic Platform party was expected to beat the hard-right Law and Justice Party into second place.