The most important outcome of Parliament elections in Bulgaria was that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms would no longer be in government, the leader of ultra-nationalist Ataka party Volen Siderov said on the evening of July 5.

"It is a very encouraging fact that MRF will no longer be in government," Siderov told reporters outside the National Palace of Culture (NDK), where party leaders would hold post-election news conferences.

Ataka is set to have about 20 seats in the next legislature, with exit polls giving it about nine per cent of the vote. The party added about 50 000 new voters since 2005, when it first participated in Parliament elections, Siderov said.

"I have guided Ataka's ship through some turbulences and storms," he said, adding that some of Ataka's messages, in particular its anti-MRF stance, were adopted by other parties.

Siderov, unwanted as a government coalition partner either by the right-leaning or left-leaning parties, said he would not reject any invitation in that sense. "I have no reasons to reject a conversation with Boiko Borissov," he said. Borissov's party GERB won the election with exit polls giving it about 41 per cent of the vote.

"It is a big responsibility. We would help a nationally responsible cabinet, but that does not mean unconditional support," Siderov said, but declined to speculate under what conditions Ataka would lend its support.

Later, at the news conference, Siderov highlighted what he thought should be the priorities of the new cabinet: quick reform of the pension system, abolishing news in Turkish on the state television BNT, abolishing the controversial land swaps - one of the main criticisms levelled at the outgoing cabinet - and revising privatisation deals that harmed Bulgaria's national interests.

"These are not conditions, these are our hopes for the policies that the new Bulgarian government will pursue," Siderov said.

He described the elections as the dirtiest in Bulgaria's post-communist history. "It was the most manipulated election. Ataka was pitted against a huge financial resource, a resource stolen from Bulgarians. Against all that, Ataka had nothing but our convictions," Siderov said.

He also accused Turkey of openly supporting MRF's campaign. "The Turkish government backed MRF's propaganda. Turkey owes Bulgaria more than 15 billion for the assets of Thracian Bulgarians seized in 1913 and an apology for five centuries of slavery," Siderov said, referring to Ottoman rule over Bulgarian territories.