September 27 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria’s centre-right coalition of GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) has an advantage of over 6 percentage points (pp) ahead of its main rival, the reformist We Continue the Change (WCC) party, a poll showed days before the October 2 early general election.
Of those who plan to vote, 23.7% will support the GERB-UDF alliance led by former prime minister Boyko Borissov, whereas WCC, led by Kiril Petkov -- prime minister of the former four-party coalition which was ousted in a no-confidence vote in June, garners 16.7% support, according to the results of a survey by Market Links polling agency and private broadcaster bTV announced on Monday.
As many as six political formations are likely to enter Bulgaria's next parliament, as per the survey, which was conducted among 1,024 respondents of voting age between September 17 and September 23.
The third largest share of support, 12.3%, went to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS), which draws support mainly from Bulgarian ethnic Turk population voting at home and abroad.
According to the Market Links poll, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) which was a member of the former governing coalition led by WCC, will be backed by 9.9% of respondents determined to cast a ballot, followed closely by the nationalist and pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party with 8.7%.
The last formation which will cross the 4% threshold to enter parliament is the reformist Democratic Bulgaria (DB) coalition, which was also part of the most recent government coalition, the Market Links poll found. While DB has supported a large chunk of WCC's reformist rationale, the two parties opted to campaign separately in the upcoming election.
Former coalition member There Is Such a People (TISP), led by musician and showman Slavi Trifonov who pulled out his ministers from Petkov's cabinet causing the mfst recent political crisis, will get 3.9% of the vote thus falling short of the voter minimum, according to the poll.
Results from the poll also leave below the threshold Rise Up.BG!, a political formation led by ex-ombudsman Maya Manolova which obtained 2.5% backing, and Bulgaria Rising, a political party recently founded by former caretaker prime minister Stefan Yanev, also with 2.5% of the vote. Yanev was earlier this year sacked by Petkov as defence minister over what was perceived as too mild a rhetoric on the Ukraine war.
As much as half of the respondents declared they were certain to vote, against 12% who do not plan to vote at all.
GERB-UDF's provisional advantage over WCC as well as the order of political formations according to stated voter preference remain broadly unchanged when adjusted for the total number of people polled.
According to a separate survey conducted among 1,050 Bulgarians a week earlier by pollster Exacta Research, GERB-UDF will come out on top with 26.2% of determined voter support, followed by WCC with 18.1% and BSP with 12.5%, while DPS gets 10.3%. According to the Exacta Research poll, both TISP and Bulgaria Rising will enter the next parliament, with 5.4% and 4.0% of support from decided voters, respectively.
GERB-UDF and WCC stand head to head as main rivals also according to a poll conducted by Gallup International Bulgaria earlier this month.