Next elections to spell end of motley Parliament

19:44 Wed 27 Feb 2008 - Petar Kostadinov

Bulgaria is scheduled to hold its next parliamentary elections in 16 months' time, but if they were held next weekend, only five parties would pass the representation threshold, compared to the nine parliamentary groups it has now, a public opinion survey showed on February 27.

Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian), led by Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov, would be the only new party to join Parliament, according to the National Centre for Public Opinion Research (NCPOR) survey, as quoted by Focus news agency.

Two of the parties in the three-way ruling coalition, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF), would join them there, but National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) would not.

NMSP splinter group Bulgarian New Democracy, which is yet to decide whether it would formally register as a party in time for the next elections, was unlikely to make it to Parliament either.

From the opposition, ultra-nationalist Ataka party and rightist Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) would win enough votes to be represented in Parliament, but the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB), set up by former UDF prime minister Ivan Kostov when he left the party, would fall short if elections were held now.

GERB would win the polls, with a slight advantage over BSP, survey data showed, although that was due more to BSP loosing support than GERB winning over any new voters. Its leader Borissov was also the politician with the highest public approval rating, at 64 per cent.

President Georgi Purvanov followed closely with 60 per cent, while Socialist Culture Minister and one of Bulgaria's most famous actors Stefan Danailov enjoyed the backing of 51 per cent. Bulgaria's European commissioner Meglena Kouneva won the approval of 42 per cent of the respondents in the survey.

Socialist Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev fared a lot worse, with only 29 per cent support, slightly below Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin (31 per cent), but above Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and Education Minister Daniel Vulchev, who scored 27 per cent each.

NCPOR carried out its survey on February 15-22.