With no clear winner emerging from Sunday’s early general elections, Bulgaria looks set for “further political instability”, Agence France Presse said in its news coverage of the vote.

According to the results of four exit polls, centre-right GERB party won between 33 and 35 percent of the vote, which will make it the biggest political force with about 90 of the 240 seats in the new Parliament – short of outright majority.

With the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which backed the cabinet that resigned in July,  trailing in the second and third place, respectively, and four or five smaller parties having passed the 4% threshold, it will be difficult to form a government in a highly fragmented parliament, AFP highlighted.

“Any new government would have its work cut out to put the EU’s poorest country back on track,” the newswire commented.

In addition to boosting Bulgaria’s economy and tackling corruption and organised crime, any new cabinet will also have to find a delicate balance between the need to maintain Bulgaria’s traditionally strong links to Russia and the need to honour its commitments as a member of the EU and NATO which have blasted Moscow for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis.