As Bulgaria got halfway through its early general elections, a news site published bogus horse race bookies’ forecast to pass on runners' likely standings.

A horse named 'General' still heads the entries but another star, named 'Poppy', will be out in force as the Bulgarian jumps season reaches a climax, novinite.bg reported.

The journalists apparently referred to the formerly ruling center-right GERB party of Boyko Borisov and the Socialist party.

Saying they have asked several leading bookmakers for their thoughts on what's likely to unfold at the keenly awaited course, the journalists reported that at noon the horse ‘General’ enjoys 23,8%, while ‘Alen Mak’ - 21,5%.

Bulgarian media beat a ban on the release of intermediate results from voting in the early general elections by using a number of tricks, including bogus weather reports, as cover to pass on runners' likely standings.

Like the Audrey Hepburn character in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," who relays coded mafia messages to a jailed don, the news agencies beat a close-of-voting 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) legal embargo with some curious temperatures and results, which they followed throughout the day.

As the capital Sofia saw a regular May day with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees Celsius, BGNES agency reported that at 1 pm temperatures near the headquarters of the ruling GERB party stood at 28 degrees Celsius compared to 31 degrees near the Socialist Party headquarters.

In other words up to that moment, the formerly ruling center-right GERB party of Boyko Borisov was winning 28% of all votes, while the Socialists were gaining speed with 31% of the votes.

The first official exit poll results will be released at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) or an hour later if the election day needs to be extended. The first partial official results are due the morning after.

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