Socialists win Bulgaria election

SOFIA, Bulgaria, June 26 (UPI) -- The Socialist Party won the Bulgaria election but did not receive enough votes to form a government.

The BBC said the Socialists, who campaigned on a promise to improve social welfare, will need the runners-up -- the governing Liberal Party and a third party that mainly represents ethnic Turks -- to form a stable cabinet.

The Socialists took the election with 31 percent of the vote. The Liberal Party received 20 percent and the Turkish minority Movement for Freedom and Rights received more than 11 percent.

The radical nationalist group Attack came in fourth with 8 percent of the vote.

"We stand here as the winners of the most votes," said Socialist leader Sergei Stanishev. "I have long said that I am a candidate for prime minister and I am ready to take that responsibility."

The BBC said turnout was low for the election, the sixth since the fall of communism in 1990.