October 7 (SeeNews) - The presidential nominee of Bulgarian governing party GERB, parliament speaker Tsetska Tsacheva, had 19.8% support about a month ahead of the November 6 vote, according to the results of an express survey conducted by Market Links polling agency.
GERB's nominee was followed by former air force commander Rumen Radev, the candidate of opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), who was backed by 14.9% of 500 respondents interviewed across the country earlier this week. The survey was commissioned by Bulgarian broadcaster bTV.
Market Links noted that support for Tsacheva was below the level of electoral support for GERB, which reached 26.7%.
"We could explain this in the first place with GERB's really delayed announcement of their nomination, and in the second place, with the fact that there were definitively better nominations in terms of public image among the names which were circulating in the public space," Dobromir Zhivkov, a sociologist from Market Links, told bTV on Wednesday.
GERB nominated Tsacheva on Sunday, at the last possible moment under the law. The election campaign started officially on Thursday.
Krassimir Karakachanov, nominated by the Patriotic Front (PF) and Ataka nationalist parties, will receive 7.9% support if elections were held now, according to the survey.
Ivaylo Kalfin, the candidate of left-wing Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), followed with 5.4% support. According to Market Links researchers, if the Socialists and ABV had put forward a joint nomination, they could have seriously threatened Tsacheva's chances.
Traicho Traikov, the presidential candidate of the centre-right Reformist Bloc (RB), which is the junior parther in the government coalition led by GERB, will get 4.5% support, according to the results of the survey.
Vote turnout is seen slightly above 50%, as a national referendum on changes to the country's voting system is expected to make voters more active. The referendum will be held simultaneously with the presidential elections.