(ANSA-AFP) - SOFIA, MAR 31 - When Bulgarians took to the streets last summer demanding the resignation of conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, analysts thought that after almost a decade in the job his time was up. In sweeping and at times violent protests that lasted months, thousands came out to accuse the embattled 61-year-old former firefighter of protecting oligarchs and meddling in the judiciary. Added to that was a slew of other troubles: there was a rift in Borisov's GERB party after his right-hand man left over a corruption scandal and an exiled gambling mogul claimed that Borisov's government had solicited bribes from him. To cap it all, embarrassing pictures emerged of the prime minister asleep with a handgun on his nightstand, and others -- which Borisov said were doctored -- purported to show bundles of 500-euro notes crammed into his bedside table. But after initially suggesting he wouldn't run in upcoming general elections on April 4, Borisov has remained at the helm of his conservative GERB party and simply sat tight through the crises. The strategy seems to have paid off, with GERB on track to emerge as the single biggest party. And after almost 10 years in the job, Borisov is now just weeks away from becoming Bulgaria's longest serving prime minister. "If we had gone to early elections, there would have been a common front against GERB and Borisov would have been swept away," Gallup international analyst Parvan Simeonov commented recently. (ANSA-AFP).