site.btaUPDATED President Radev on Possible Early Elections: August Is Not Best Month for Campaigning

Asked to comment on possible early elections, President Rumen Radev Thursday told journalists that August "is not the best month for campaigning, nor are elections by mid-September".

"You will hear my decision very soon," he added, referring to his decision on when to hand the second cabinet-forming mandate. He was asked whether he would wait for the "turbulence in the Movement for Rights and Freedoms" to pass.

In his words, the possibility of no regular government is growing by the day, therefore it is his duty to take into account not only the handing of the mandate  but also when possible snap parliamentary elections could be held, given there is a specific constitutional time frame. "I will take all these circumstances into view so that we do not have elections by mid-September and parties do not conduct their campaigns in August," Radev specified. Parties themselves do not what to be campaigning in August and are running away from that, he added.

On Wednesday, the National Assembly defeated the proposal of the GERB-UDF parliamentary group for Rosen Zhelyazkov to become prime minister. The nomination was rejected by 98 votes in favour and 138 against, with 2 abstentions. President Radev is expected to grant a second exploratory mandate for forming a government under the 50th National Assembly.