Sofia, Oct 2 (ABC): Bulgarians voted Sunday in their fourth general election in 18 months, anxious about soaring consumer prices and energy costs ahead of a winter overshadowed by the Ukraine war. While endemic corruption was the focus of the previous vote last November, economic woes are now top of voters’ concerns. The European Union’s poorest member state is battling annual inflation of close to 20 percent.
“Voters are preoccupied with the prices a lot more than with the geostrategical topics that political parties bicker about,” political analyst Antony Todorov told AFP before polls opened at 7:00 am (0400 GMT). They will close at 8:00 pm when polling agencies will announce their first exit poll results. Krasimira Velkova, a 64-year-old economist from Sofia who came to cast her ballot shortly after polls opened, confirmed these fears.
“People worry about inflation, about the fact that when you enter a food store, a shopping trolley that’s just half full costs a fortune. The difference compared to last year is absolutely staggering,” she told. “We are worried about how we’ll get through the winter, how we’ll bear the cold, if we’ll be able to pay our bills,” Velkova added. Bulgaria’s former three-time premier Boyko Borisov, 63, who dominated politics for a decade and is now eyeing a comeback on a “return to stability” platform, could benefit from people’s fears. Polls on the eve of the ballot show support for his conservative GERB party rising, crediting it with about 25 percent of the votes.
