Sunday’s early parliamentary elections reflected disillusionment and further polarisation in Bulgarian society, international observers have said.

“…numerous corruption scandals and allegations of vote-buying, combined with a lack of substance in the electoral campaign, undermined public trust in the process and in politics in general,” Doris Fiala, Head of the delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said in a statement on Monday.

“I encourage the newly-elected political forces to set aside their differences and to tackle together society’s pressing demands,” Fiala said.

In her view, voter fatigue was clearly visible during the campaign which was dominantly marked by populist claims.

Although the elections were well administered technically and fundamental freedoms were respected, the election environment was characterised by electoral and political fatigue, the observers said.

They also highlighted that allegations of vote-buying and selling persisted despite a pledge by the authorities to fully enforce existing laws against the practice 

Despite more than 300 reports of irregularities prior to election day, only two of these had resulted in prosecutions, PACE said.

According to Audrey Glover, head of the limited election observation mission sent by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), “there was little campaigning on issues and the media showed no interest in reporting on the elections except for in paid coverage.”

“Unless these problems, along with the persistent allegations of election irregularities, are effectively addressed, there will continue to be a serious lack of confidence in elections and in current politics in general,” said Glover.

She added the vote was a first test of Bulgaria's new Electoral Code approved by the former government.

While Bulgaria’s new Electoral Code “generally provides a sound basis” for holding democratic elections, it also contains certain “gaps and ambiguities that hamper the consistent application of the law”, PACE said.

Looking at the media coverage of the electoral process, the international observers pointed out that while contestants were able to present their views through debates, interviews and paid advertising, smaller parties and independent candidates said the playing field was uneven when it came to access to the media.

"Limited coverage of the election campaign in the news and in the editorial content of the print media, as well as lack of investigative and analytical reporting limited the information available to voters," the statement also reads.

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