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(Bloomberg) — Bulgaria’s influential former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has won a snap election on Sunday, but falls short of the majority needed to end the Balkan country’s political paralysis.

Borissov’s Gerb party won 26.4% of the snap vote on Sunday, according to a poll conducted by Alpha Research and published by the BNT public TV channel. The election was Bulgaria’s seventh vote in less then four years. 

His main challenger, an alliance running on an anti-corruption platform and led by ex-Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, came second with 14.9%. The nationalist Revival party, which has repeatedly echoed Kremlin talking points and wants Bulgaria out of NATO, took 12.9%. Due to these close margins, the runner-up may change as first official results come in the next hours.

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Bulgaria has been in a political stalemate since 2021, when anti-graft protests put an end to Borissov’s political dominance after more than a decade. Since then, a series of short-lived administrations, both elected and caretaker, have run the EU’s poorest country. They have had to grapple with the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while trying to keep Bulgaria on its path to adopt the euro. 

Most parties have repeatedly refused to collaborate with Borissov, leaving him limited options to return to office despite a series of election wins. He has urged Petkov’s bloc to back him for a pro-western coalition, but his opponents have refused outright support — and with Petkov losing half of his voters in the previous snap vote in June, it may not suffice. Borissov hasn’t ruled out proposing a minority cabinet.

“Two parties are not enough” for a ruling majority, Boryana Dimitrova, managing partner at Alpha Research, told BNT. “They’ll have to look for a third one. The question is which one,” as some of the parties are “incompatible in principle,” she said.

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The frustration has helped boost the results of Revival, whose number of voters has risen fourfold since 2021. As seven factions will certainly enter parliament, two more anti-establishment parties could join them when final results are released. 

The failure to find a way out of Bulgaria’s political impasse has led to widespread voter disengagement. While Sunday’s turnout didn’t reach a record low, as few as 38% of voters cast a ballot, according to the exit poll.

Borissov will be the first to receive a mandate to form a government from President Rumen Radev. If Borissov fails to secure support, the mandate will be offered to the second-biggest party. 

If that fails, Radev — a NATO-trained general known for his Russia-friendly stances — will then have to invite another party to form a government before he will be obliged to schedule a new election. Analysts do not rule out another parliamentary election next spring. 

(Updates with Alpha Research comment in the sixth paragraph, turnout in eighth.)

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