Bulgarians vote in third election this year in bid to break deadlock

Bulgarians vote on Sunday in their third parliamentary election this year, with opinion polls pointing to another inconclusive result that could hamper efforts to tackle high energy prices, a jump in COVID-19 cases and widespread corruption, Report informs via Reuters.

Another failure to break a prolonged political impasse and forge a functioning cabinet in the European Union's poorest member state could also potentially slow plans for the country to adopt the euro by 2024.

An election for the largely ceremonial post of president is also held on Sunday. Polls show incumbent Rumen Radev, 58, is poised to win re-election for a second five-year term after a likely run-off vote on Nov. 21.

Bulgaria has been gripped by political uncertainty since April, when an election ended the decade-long rule of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his center-right GERB party following massive anti-graft protests against him last year.

Policy differences and rivalry prevented his opponents, the so-called parties of change, from forging a ruling coalition after the April election and another ballot in July.

GERB has seized on the deadlock, rising energy costs and a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the EU's least vaccinated country - helping it bolster support among party loyalists.

The latest polls give the party backing of 24%, putting it on track to be the biggest in parliament.

But Borissov, 62, a burly former bodyguard of late Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, is unlikely to find allies to forge a coalition, analysts say.

A new centrist party pledging "zero corruption", set up by two Harvard-educated former interim ministers, is seen as having the biggest chance of steering talks for a new administration with two other anti-graft factions and the Socialists.

Polls open at 7 a.m. (05:00 GMT) and close at 8 p.m. (18:00 GMT).