Exacta Research: GERB will have 7 MEPs, Bulgarian Socialist Party 6
In Bulgaria’s European Parliament elections on May 26, Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s centre-right GERB party will get 32.4 per cent and Kornelia Ninova’s Bulgarian Socialist Party 27.3 per cent, according to the results of a poll by Exacta Research, released on May 23.
This would give GERB seven MEPs and the BSP six, out of the total 17 Bulgarian seats in the European Parliament.
Exacta Research’s poll saw the Movement for Rights and Freedoms as having 13.3 per cent, three MEPs, and the nationalist VMRO 6.5 per cent, one MEP.
Just below the threshold to win an MEP seat are the populist Volya, at 4.5 per cent, and the reformist Democratic Bulgaria, at 4.3 per cent, according to the Exacta poll.
Voter turnout is expected to be between 26 and 32 per cent. In Sofia, voter turnout will be lower than the average.
The polling agency said that GERB and the BSP had begun the campaign with results close to each other. The contest between the two parties had attracted almost all public attention.
As the campaign unfolded, GERB had managed to take the lead, raising its score and beating the BSP.
The poll found that the European Parliament elections were perceived as more important by GERB voters than by supporters of the BSP. Fifty-four of GERB supporters saw the election as important, compared with 45 per cent among BSP supporters.
The poll was done by the Exacta Research Group between May 18 and 22 2019. The poll was funded by Exacta, independent of external financing. One thousand adult Bulgarians were interviewed in face-to-face interviews at home in 125 households in 91 places in Bulgaria. The margin of error is about three per cent.
Related:
Bulgaria’s May 26 2019 European Parliament elections: Factfile
