site.btaEarly Elections Now Will Likely Reproduce Current Parliament - Pollsters

Early Elections Now Will Likely Reproduce Current Parliament - Pollsters

Sofia, March 9 (BTA) - If snap elections were held now, the
present Parliament will likely be reproduced, according to a
recent nationally representative poll of the Exacta agency. The
poll was held February 24 to March 4 among 1,000 respondents,
and was made public Monday.

Bulgaria without Censorship is the only of the eight parties in
the current legislature which would stay out if elections were
held now, and the reason is that its electorate has shrunk
considerably.

In this Exacta poll, GERB gets 27.4 per cent of the votes, the
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) 11.1 per cent, the Movement for
Rights and Freedoms (MRF) 8.2 per cent, the Reformist Bloc (RB)
5.5 per cent, the Patriotic Front (PF) 4.5 per cent and Ataka
and ABV 3 per cent each.

Apparently, the gap between BSP and MRF is narrowing, analysts
comment.

Half of Bulgarians believe that it would be best for this
country to have this government serve out a full term. 21 are in
 favour of snap elections. The supporters of Ataka and BSP
advocate frequent elections.

Only a third of those unhappy with the government's performance
want early elections. It means that the critical attitudes at
this stage don't come to radical expectations for a change of
the government. 

More than half of Bulgarians (52  per cent) are in favour of
mandatory voting and 36 per cent are against.

The government

Thirty-one per cent of Bulgarians approve of the government. 55
per cent disapprove, and most of these are aged over 60, have
poor education background and low living standards.   

The pollsters comment that this government bring lots of
surprises as the sectors which usually get the most negative
attitude this time enjoy the highest  approval.

The list of the most approved ministers is topped by Health
Minister Peter Moskov and Regional Development Minister Liliyana
 Pavlova (49 and 48 per cent, respectively). Next comes Labour
Minister Ivaylo Kalfin (41 per cent) and the Deputy Prime
Minister for EU funds and economic policy, Tomislav Donchev (38
per cent). These are the ministers who get more approval than
disapproval.

The next group of ministers are "the golden mean" in terms of
public approval: Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski, Deputy
Prime Ministers Meglena Kuneva and Roumyana Buchvarova, Finance
Minister Vladislav Goranov, Economy Minister Bozhidar Loukarski,
 Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, Sport Minister Krassen Kralev,
Agriculture Minister Dessislava Taneva and Justice Minister
Hristo Ivanov.

According to 7 per cent of respondents, the biggest achievement
of the government is reclaiming the confidence of the EU
institutions and unfreezing EU funding for Bulgaria. 6 per cent
name as achievements the establishment of a more tolerant tone
in politics, the changed behaviour of the Prime Minister and the
 improved coalition culture of the power-holders.

Asked to enlist the actions of the government they liked the
least, 46 per cent of the respondents said they have no negative
 comments to make about the government's performance. 16 per
cent said one thing they disliked is the decision to take out a
new external loan of up to 16 billion leva over the coming years
 - because it remained unclear how the government planned to
spend the money. 7 per cent are unhappy with the lack of reforms
 and 6 per cent with what they see as absence of coordination
among the partners in the government coalition.

Exacta found that approval was highest for the armed forces and
police (35 per cent each). Parliament has the approval of 18 per
 cent of adult Bulgarians and remains the most disliked state
institution (with 67 per cent of disapproval).

The politicians

Parliament leader Tssetska Tsacheva has 18 per cent approval.
GERB floor leader Tsvetan Tsvetnov and RB co-floor leader Radan
Kanev get higher approval than their peers (23 per cent each),
followed by Valeri Simeonov (PF) with 20 per cent.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has 43 per cent approval and 45
per cent disapproval. He has added 4 per cent to his approval
since the elections in October 2014 and disapproval has dropped
by 3 per cent in the past four months.

President Rosen Plevneliev has the approval of 39 per cent of
Bulgarians which is 3 per cent less than in October 2014. His
critics have increased by 5 per cent (48 per cent disapproval).
The negative assessment for the President comes mostly from the
ranks of BSP and Ataka voters. Three our of four voters of GERB
are happy with the President performance.