Bulgarians head to the polls

Simeon II has tapped popular disenchantment over low living standards

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- Bulgarian voters are heading to the polls in an election widely predicted to be won by a new movement led by former king Simeon II.

All opinion polls have put the National Movement for Simeon II at least 10 percentage points ahead of the ruling centre-right Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) coalition led by Prime Minister Ivan Kostov in the contest for parliamentary seats.

The Socialist Party of ex-communists, the other party which has dominated the political scene in Bulgaria in the past decade, is forecast to come in third.

Voting began at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) with the results of exit polls, run by polling agencies and main television channels, to be announced after polling stations close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT).

More than 5,000 candidates representing 50 parties and coalitions are contesting the election with the official results expected within four days.

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Simeon II returned to Bulgaria this year from a five-decade exile that began when he left in 1946, at the age of 9.

If his party wins this election, the Balkan state of some eight million people will become the first east European, post-communist country where an ex-monarch has made a comeback.

Since 1997, when Kostov's UDF took the helm of government by winning 137 of 240 seats in parliament, Bulgaria's eight million citizens have been on the receiving end of painful market-oriented reforms.

The austerity measures have reined in inflation, and boosted growth to 5.8 percent last year.

But Bulgaria remains one of the poorest European Union contenders with unemployment officially at 18 percent and average per capita income at only $1,500 a year. Charges of graft have also undermined the government's popularity.

Simeon II's movement, seizing on such disenchantment, has proposed a zero tax on reinvested profits, higher wages, a balanced budget, and projects aimed at reducing unemployment and rooting out corruption, Associated Press reported.

Kostov has accused Simeon of "wild populism" and in a televised appeal, said that the UDF needed another term to translate the economic stability it had achieved into tangible benefits for the population.

"On Sunday we are facing a crucial choice -- whether to embark on an unknown road or to choose to continue along the way which would lead us to a stronger and more secure Bulgaria, which would create jobs and well-being for its people," he said.

Simeon is not running personally for the 240-member single-chamber parliament nor has he said how he sees his future role if his movement wins -- whether as a prime minister or a behind-the-scenes role.

Reports have speculated that the prize he really covets is the presidency, for which elections will be held in September. A high court ruling requiring presidential candidates to have lived in Bulgaria for at least five years bars Simeon from contesting those elections.

But some observers say that the ex-king may nurture hopes that his supporters will revise the law to allow him to run for president, if they win power.