The unprecedented general elections parallel counting announced by 5 major Bulgarian former opposition parties will be serviced by Austrian company SORA - Institute for Social Research and Consulting.

Tuesday representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms, nationalists Ataka, rightists Democrats for Strong Bulgaria, and new party Bulgaria for Citizens signed the official agreement for the parallel counting of the vote on Sunday, May 12.

The unprecedented move, which unites traditional arch-rivals, is prompted by their shared fear that former ruling GERB party might exercise its lasting influence on the executive, leading to a rigged vote.

The contract was concluded directly between SORA - who have experience with some 50 vote parallel counts - and the Socialists, with the fee shared among parties in proportion to their state subsidies.

"We agreed that Bulgaria for Citizens, which does not have a state subsidy, will pay at their discretion," said senior Movement for Rights and Freedoms functionary Yordan Tsonev.

The fee that the Austrian company is set to receive was negotiated to be at least EUR 142,000, announced Socialist Party secretary and MEP Kristian Vigenin.

The contract includes SORA preparing forecast results in the election night, conducting a parallel count based on copies of polling stations protocols, and preparing a statistical analysis of the vote, said company managing partner G?nther Ogris, who was in Sofia for the event.

All data will be published at the website fairelections-bulgaria.eu, with the first early results (on the basis of 600 of 11,900 polling stations) expected around 10-12 pm Sunday.

Orgis dismissed as insubstantial worries by Bulgarian elections expert Mihail Konstantinov that there might be discrepancies between SORA's results and the official ones.

According to him, a margin of about 1.5% would be acceptable.

Bulgarian party representatives said however that each vote must count.

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