(2 Apr 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sofia, Bulgaria - 2 April 2023
1. Various of former Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov entering polling station, voting, leaving polling station
2. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Kiril Petkov, former PM and leader of We continue the Change party:
"I voted by machine for one simple reason. I don't want my two daughters to study in foreign countries. I want my third daughter to return and work in Bulgaria.”
3. SOUNDBITE (Bulgarian) Kiril Petkov, former PM and leader of We continue the Change party:
“I voted for a normal European life, to have a normal European government, normal European roads, normal European healthcare, normal European education. I actually voted because I realise there is no saviour and saving us depends on each and every one of us.”
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Former Bulgarian prime minister Kiril Petkov cast his ballot in the country's fifth general election in two years, as politicians hoped to end political instability and help overcome the economic woes fuelled by a raging war in Ukraine.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT).
Initial exit poll results will be announced after polls close at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) and preliminary results are expected on Monday.
Turnout is expected to be low due to voters’ apathy and disillusionment with politicians, who have been repeatedly unable to cobble together a viable government coalition.
Most pollsters found three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s center-right GERB party running neck-and-neck at around 26% with its main rival, Petkov’s liberal We Continue the Change party, which recently formed a coalition with the right-wing Democratic Bulgaria.
“I voted for a normal European life, to have a normal European government, normal European roads, normal European healthcare, normal European education. I actually voted because I realise there is no saviour and saving us depends on each and every one of us,” said Petkov.
AP Video shot by Valentina Petrova
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