site.btaTrend Poll: GERB Regains Stability, Lead on Socialists

111 - POLITICS - POLL- ELECTIONS

Trend Poll: GERB
Regains Stability,
Lead on Socialists

May 22 (BTA) - GERB has regained partially the support of voters after it was undermined by the scandal with the underpriced apartments acquired by office-holders, and has come ahead of its key rival for the May 26 European elections, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). This transpires from a regular poll by the Trend agency commissioned by the "24 Chassa" daily. The poll was taken May 11-17 among 1,007 repondents.

Three parties are sure to win seats in the European Parliament: GERB, BSP and MRF. The nationalist VMRO remains on the brink of staying out.

According to the Trend poll, GERB will get 31.5 per cent of the votes, BSP 30.4 per cent and MRF has a strong hold on the third place with 12.8 per cent.

VMRO gets 5.8 per cent.

Volya is improving its results from the previous poll and now gets 4.8 per cent.

The Democratic Bulgaria coalition of Right-wing parties and Greens has neither gained nor lost support and remains with 4.2 per cent and negligible chances to have a MEP.

Coalition for Bulgaria (of former President Georgi Purvanov's ABV party) gets 2.4 per cent, Ataka 2 per cent, Patriots for Valeri Simeonov (of the power-sharing nationalist NFSB) 1.3 per cent and the Left-wing Vuzrazhdane 1.2 per cent.

The pollsters also found that 16 per cent of voters have not yet decided how to vote. Just over a third of voters (35 per cent) made up their mind even before the election campaign started and 9 per cent during the campaign.

The pollsters specify that the poll ended on May 17 and the share of those who took a decision how to vote during the campaign is likely to go slightly up.

Thirty per cent of the respondents said that they would mark their preferred candidate on the ballot and 39 per cent are determined not to. LY/LN/
/СН/