Bulgarians began voting yesterday in general elections widely expected to return to the ex-communist Socialist party to power 18 months before the country joins the EU.
Voting stations opened at 6am, the director of the Central Electoral Commission, Alexander Alexandrov said.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), born out of the old communist party just after the fall of the Iron Curtain, is tipped to take 36 to 45 percent of the vote and end the rule of royal-born Prime Minister Simeon Sax-Coburg.
Opinion polls indicate support for his center-right National Movement Simeon II has dropped by more than half to around 18 percent since it won the last vote in 2001.
His government is seen as the most stable in the post-communist era and is credited with laying the groundwork for EU accession after Bulgaria was excluded from the major enlargement drive of last year.
Economic growth has reached a record six percent, but Bulgarians say his cautious reforms have not worked fast enough to curb poverty afflicting half the nation.
"I hope the new government continues reforms the same way without losing time. A lot should have been done and done faster. People are frustrated and it is understandable," said Nikolai Bebov, a lawyer who voted at school in Sofia.
"But I am not sure that a Socialist government will be perceived well outside the country."
Analysts say the election holds surprises in store as some 15 percent of voters remained undecided right up to polling day.
They predicted that up to seven parties could make it into parliament, including a nationalist group exploiting animosity towards the Turkish and Gypsy minorities.
"The situation is very tense, very fluid, and we have to be prepared for surprises," Miroslava Yanova, the director of the MBMD polling institute, told reporters.
She said it remained unclear who might enter into a coalition with the Socialists to form a new government.
"They could need three parties for a coalition and that is very tricky."
Yanova said this could spell the end of Bulgaria's new-found political stability and a hung parliament would not bode well for the Socialists plans to push through reforms required for EU accession.
Bulgaria and fellow member-in-waiting Romania last month received both warnings from the European Commission to speed up reforms.
If they do not, they risk having membership postponed until 2008.
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