Borissov’s GERB to take largest share of votes in 2019 European Parliament elections – poll
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s centre-right GERB party will take the largest share of votes, about 34.8 per cent, when the country goes to the ballot booths in the May 2019 European Parliament elections, according to the findings of a survey released on February 18.
The opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party will get 33.1 per cent, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms 10.4 per cent and the United Patriots eight per cent, according to the poll, the first in a series commissioned by the European Parliament ahead of the votes in EU countries to be held between May 23 and 26.
Of the 17 Bulgarian seats in the European Parliament, eight will go to the EU-wide centre-right European People’s Party, of which GERB is a member, six to the Party of European Socialists, two to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, of which the MRF is a member, while one will go into the “other” category, the poll found.
The European Parliament posted a graphic of projections for the next legislature, based on national polling data taken up to the beginning of February 2019.
“The data is based on a selection of reliable polls conducted by national polling institutes in the member states and aggregated by Kantar public on behalf of (the European) Parliament,” the legislature said.
Parties are only allocated to existing political groups or where they are already affiliated to an associated European political party. All new political parties and movements, who have not yet declared their intentions are categorised as “other”.
By projecting today’s voting preferences across the EU27 onto the distribution of seats in the European Parliament after Brexit, the next hemicycle would reflect a more fragmented political landscape than ever.
The next European Parliament will have fewer MEPs (705) than the outgoing Parliament (751), because of Brexit.
The European Parliament said that it would be publishing updated projections every two weeks until the end of April and every week during the month of May until election night itself.
Initial exit polls will then be published on May 26, for those countries that conduct them and where voting has finished, from 6pm Brussels time and every hour until provisional final results are available from all member states, the European Parliament said.
(Main photo: EC Audiovisual Service)
