Bulgaria To Hold Early General Elections On Oct 5
Bulgaria's main political parties will propose to the president to set October 5 as the date for holding early general elections in the country, the leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) said on Friday.
"We have authorised the National Assembly chairman to hold a meeting with the president of the republic on holding without delay political consultations to guarantee the achievement of the country's main priorities and the transition to political stability," Sergey Stanishev said in a statement posted on BSP's website after a meeting between the leaders of the opposition centre-right GERB, the BSP, and the ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF).
On June 17, Bulgaria's parliamentary-represented parties agreed to open talks on holding early general elections between September 28 and October 12.
Earlier this month, MRF leader Lyutvi Mestan called for early general elections, saying the results of the recent elections for members of the European Parliament (EP) - in which the Socialists suffered a crushing defeat - created a new political reality in the country. In response, Stanishev said that MRF having withdrawn its support for the government, early elections should be held as soon as possible.
The cabinet of Plamen Oresharski is backed by the Socialists and the MRF.
GERB won the May 25 elections for EP by a decisive margin, polling 30.4% of the votes. The Socialists' Coalition for Bulgaria was supported by a mere 18.9% of voters, followed closely by the MRF with 17.3%.
Over the past year GERB has repeatedly called for early general elections in the country.
The leaders of two other political formations which crossed the 5.88% threshold for entry into the EP - Bulgaria without Censorship and the Reformist Bloc - too have demanded snap elections.