August 20 (SeeNews) - Daniel Mitov, nominated for prime minister by Bulgaria's GERB-UDF coalition, returned on Friday the exploratory mandate for forming a government due to lack of support from other political parties in the fragmented parliament, bringing closer the prospects for early election.
"We do not see a possibility to fulfil the second mandate," Mitov told president Rumen Radev upon receiving the mandate, as seen in a video file posted on the website of public TV BNT.
The centre-right coalition comprising the former ruling party GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) is the second biggest force in parliament after the July 11 snap election, behind the populist formation There Is Such a People (TISP).
Last week, Plamen Nikolov, the prime minister-designate of election winner TISP, gave up the nomination after TISP failed to secure backing for a cabinet from a majority of the MPs.
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 should 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 a new government.