Socialists Win Free Elections in Bulgaria

The heirs of the Communist Party have won control of Parliament in Bulgaria’s first free elections in 58 years, but unofficial results today showed the capital firmly in opposition hands.

Bulgaria’s ruling Socialists are the only reform Communists to hold onto power in an Eastern Europe nation where authoritarian rule gave way to popular elections this year after decades of Soviet domination.

Premier Andrei Lukanov today said he was confident that he could form a government with broad support. He said he was encouraged by the main opposition coalition’s support for a government of nonpartisan administrators.

Members of Bulgaria’s Communist Party formed the Socialist Party and state-run Sofia radio said unofficial final results showed the Socialists won 39 of the 81 seats at stake in Sunday’s run-offs. That would give them them a total of 211 seats in the 400-member Parliament.

The main opposition alliance, the Union of Democratic Forces, won 37 seats for a total of 144, the radio said. Among those were 6 more seats in Sofia to give the alliance 24 of the capital’s 26 seats, unofficial counts showed.

The opposition in this country of 9 million gets much of its backing from the urban intelligentsia, while the Socialists are seen as a force for stability in the Balkan country’s more conservative countryside.