September 26 (SeeNews) - Prime minister Boyko Borissov is the Bulgarian political party leader with the highest approval rating in the country less than two months ahead of the presidential elections, according to the results of survey conducted by Sofia-based Alpha Research polling agency.
Borissov, leader of conservative GERB party, topped the ranking with an approval rating of 32.6% in the poll conducted during the period September 9-15 among 1,026 respondents, according to figures posted on Alpha Research's website.
Borissov, who leads a minority coalition government that took office in 2014, has said that he will not run for president in the elections scheduled for November 6. GERB has said that it will announce its candidate for the presidential race on October 2, two days before the deadline set under election rules. Incumbent president Rossen Plevneliev, nominated by GERB in the 2011 presidential elections, has said that he will not seek a second term of office in the 2016 vote, citing personal reasons.
The survey by Alpha Research put Tatyana Doncheva, leader of left-wing Movement 21 in the second place with 21.9% approval. Doncheva said earlier this month that she will run for president.
Kornelia Ninova, leader of main opposition Socialists, was third with an approval rating of 18.5%. Former president Georgi Parvanov, leader of left-wing party Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), followed with 18.3%.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party has nominated former Air Force chief Maj Gen Rumen Radev as its presidential candidate, while ABV has put forward the nomination of Ivaylo Kalfin, a former deputy prime minister and labour minister in the government led by Boiko Borisov's.
The presidential candidate of the Patriotic Front (PF) and Ataka nationalist parties, PF co-leader Krassimir Karakachanov, had 20% approval rating in the Alpha Research poll.
Valeri Simeonov, the other co-leader of the Patriotic Front, had an approval rating of 13.4%, while Ataka's founder Siderov’s approval rating was 4.5%.
Among political leaders from the centre-right Reformist Bloc (RB), the junior partner in the coalition government, education minister Meglena Kouneva had 9.8% approval rating, followed by Radan Kanev with 7.8%, defence minister Nikolai Nenchev with 7.3% and economy minister Bozhidar Lukarski with 5.4%.
The relatively low level of approval for RB leaders could spell difficulties for the election campaign of the bloc's candidate Traicho Traikov, a former energy minister in Borisov's previous government (2009-2013).
In a statement accompanying the results of its survey Alpha Research says that the lack of a GERB nomination for president makes it impossible to gauge support for presidential candidates. Once the name of the GERB candidate is announced, it will affect the support for the nominees of the other political parties, the polling agency says.
Twelve parties and five coalitions have registered for the presidential elections.
Incumbent president Rossen Plevneliev has an approval rating of 21% and disapproval rating of 39% in the Alpha Research poll.
About 57% of those eligible to vote in the presidential elections intend to cast a ballot, according to the survey.
A national referendum on changes to the country's voting system will be held simultaneously with the presidential vote.
The referendum will ask voters three questions: whether they support electing the members of parliament through a majoritarian voting system with absolute majority in two rounds; whether they support the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referenda; and whether they support cutting the state subsidy for political parties and coalitions to 1 lev ($0.57/0.510 euro) per valid vote in the latest parliamentary elections.
The national referendum was initiated by television talk show host Slavi Trifonov. It contained six questions initially but Bulgaria's constitutional court removed half of them, declaring them unconstitutional.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)