The centre-right Blue Coalition said it will ask for a manual recount of the votes cast in the June 7 elections for European Parliament.

Final results published on June 8 by Bulgaria's electoral authorities put the coalition just 361 votes behind the National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) and preliminary seat distribution calculations give NMSP two MEPs, while the Blue Coalition would receive only one.

"In this situation, we have to ask for a manual recount," the head of the Blue Coalition's election team, Petar Moskov, told reportedrs on June 8. "We are sceptical about things going on in the early hours of the morning, when tiredness sets in."

Martin Dimitrov, the leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), one of the two major parties in the Blue Coalition accused the ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) of marshalling its supporters to vote for NMSP. The two parties, along with the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), make up the current ruling coalition in Bulgarian Parliament.

"This influenced the elections result and proved that they will stop at nothing. There is no underhanded tactic they will not use," Dimitrov said. The Blue Coalition between UDF and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB) faced repeated obstacles registration, which they blamed on attempts by MRF and BSP to eliminate any competition.

Dimitrov invited the party of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian), to open talks on designating joint nominees for the 31 majoritarian seats in Bulgaria's next 240-seat legislature.

"Once again I am inviting GERB to have joint majoritarian nominees, or they will lose against MRF and BSP, who will play together," Dimitrov said. Together, the Blue Coalition and GERB could sweep the majoritarian seats, which would give them the edge they needed to have a majority in the next Parliament.

DSB leader Ivan Kostov said GERB was under pressure to mobilise potential supporters that opposed the current three-way ruling coalition. "GERB has won the most votes and if it wants to form the next government, it must look at the supporters of small parties and try to win the majoritarian elections with our help."