Bulgaria to hold new snap parliamentary election on November 14
The Balkan country will hold its third parliamentary elections and the first round of the regular presidential election on the same date, Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev says.
FILE PHOTO: In this April 4, 2021 file photo, a woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the parliamentary election, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Bulgaria will hold snap general elections on November 14 to try and resolve a political crisis that has left it without a regular government for months, President Rumen Radev said.
Bulgarians had voted in April and July but both polls resulted in fragmented legislatures. No party has been able to form a government to succeed the almost ten-year tenure of former conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
"The elections will be on November 14," Radev said in the northern town of Pleven, adding that it would coincide with the first round of a presidential election.
Radev, who is also running for a second term, is due to sign an official decree in the coming days to dissolve parliament and appoint a caretaker administration to organise the vote.
Radev said holding the two votes together will save time and taxpayer money in the European Union's poorest member state.
"It is obvious that the two campaigns will be taking place in the same time and will merge. I will count on the support of all respectable Bulgarians on the big issues – the fight against poverty and injustice," he told reporters.
Fragmented parliament
Recent opinion polls suggest that Borissov's GERB party could retake the lead in the new vote, ahead of the new anti-establishment There Is Such a People (ITN) party of showman Slavi Trifonov.
Pollsters, however, forecast another badly fragmented parliament.
November's vote will be the third parliamentary poll this year after inconclusive polls in April and July failed to produce a government amid an upsurge in coronavirus infections and rising energy prices.
The ITN party, led by popular TV talk-show host and singer Slavi Trifonov, narrowly won the July 11 vote with pledges to tackle widespread corruption, but failed to win the support from smaller anti-graft parties to form a cabinet.
Two other attempts to form a government by other political parties also failed.
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic and its 240-seat legislature, elected for a period of four years, votes in a cabinet.
The country's president meanwhile has a more ceremonial role as a head of state and chief commander of the armed forces.
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