There are only small discrepancies between latest results by Austrian institute SORA's parallel count and official data by Bulgaria's election authority regarding Sunday's early general elections in Bulgaria.

According to SORA's last data published Tuesday, formerly-ruling centrist Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, has gathered 30.68% of the vote (997 479 ballots).

Teft-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP is next with 27.25% (886 032); then follow the liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS - 9.96%, (323 728) and the far-right, nationalist Ataka - 7.55%, (245 629).

All other parties running in Sunday's vote have remained below the 4% election hurdle.

The largest discrepancy with official data is for MRF/DPS, which according to Bulgaria's Central Electoral Commission has got 11.22% of the vote.

SORA - Institute for Social Research and Consulting, was commissioned to do a parallel count by Bulgarian parties other than GERB, which feared that the former rulers might use their lasting influence to skew results from the vote.

The latest SORA data confirm forecasts by other analysts that the Socialists and the Movement together might get half of Bulgaria's 240 MP seats, the other half remaining for GERB and Ataka.

SORA's Tuesday preliminary parallel count is based on 93.39% of election protocols, the rest still being missing.

According to SORA findings, 2.4% of ballots cast are not valid, with 0.4% of ballots not actually corresponding to the official form.

The Austrian institute further said that more than a quarter - 27% of election protocols - have not passed required quality control, with information in half of them suffering from various defects.

You can review SORA's results at their special site for Bulgaria's elections, www.fairelections-bulgaria.eu.

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