Bulgaria will hold snap general elections on 14 November to try to resolve a political crisis that has left it without a regular government for months, the country’s president, Rumen Radev, said on Saturday.
Bulgarians 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 10-year tenure of former conservative prime minister Boyko Borisov.
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“The elections will be on 14 November,” 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.
Recent opinion polls suggest that Borisov’s GERB party could retake the lead in the new vote, ahead of the new anti-establishment ITN party of showman Slavi Trifonov.
Pollsters however forecast another badly fragmented parliament.
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.
