August 26 (SeeNews) - A centre-right coalition of former ruling party GERB and Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) is expected to reclaim its position of the biggest political force in Bulgaria's parliament after an increasingly likely second snap general election this year, polling agency Market Links said on Thursday.
The GERB-UDF alliance, which has the second biggest group of MPs after the early elections held on July 11, is now expected to win 21.6% of the vote, Market Links said in a summary of the results of a survey of voters' attitudes.
Second will come reformist Democratic Bulgaria coalition with 16.5% of the votes, slightly ahead of the winner of the July 11 elections - the populist formation There Is Such a People (TISP), and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) which came in third on July 11.
"If early elections were held now, GERB-UDF would be the first political force again, due to a drop in support for TISP, by about 5% within a month," Market Links said.
GERB-UDF won the regular general election held on April 4 but failed to form a government due to lack of support from any of the remaining parties in the fragmented parliament. TISP and BSP also were unsuccessful in their attempts to put together a working cabinet in April, which led to the snap vote on July 11.
In the Market Links' survey, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) was the choice of 11% of respondents, while Rise Up BG! We are coming! party, previously known as Rise Up, Thugs Out!, followed with 4.5% of votes.
According to the survey conducted during August 13-22, nationalist conservative party Revival will also pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament, which will bring the number of parties in the National Assembly to seven.
Last Friday, Daniel Mitov, nominated for prime minister by GERB-UDF coalition, returned the exploratory mandate for forming a government due to lack of support from other parties in parliament, bringing closer the prospects for early election.
On August 12, the parliament approved the decision of the prime-minister designate of TISP, Plamen Nikolov, to give up the nomination, opening the the way for president Rumen Radev to task GERB with forming the country's next government. However, on August 20 GERB-UDF prime-minister designate returned the exploratory mandate for forming a government to the president due to lack of support from other parties in parliament, bringing closer the prospects for early election.
The president is now required to hand a mandate to any of the remaining four political groups in parliament. If no government is formed after that round, new snap elections must be held.
TISP holds 65 of 240 seats in the National Assembly, GERB-UDF has 63, the Bulgarian Socialist Party has 36, Democratic Bulgaria has 34, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms has 29 and Rise Up! We're Coming has 13.
None of them have until now said they have put together a majority of at least 121 MPs needed to support the country's next government government.