Bulgaria's Left-Wing Parties to Join Forces for Presidential Vote

The three main left-of-center parties in Bulgaria vowed on Tuesday to work together to prevent a candidate of the biggest governing party GERB from winning the forthcoming presidential elections.

Their leaders, however, did not discuss any names of possible nominations.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) met with Alternative Bulgarian Revival (ABV) and later with Tatyana Doncheva of Movement 21. For the BSP and ABV these were the first talks in two years. 

ABV leader and former President Georgi Parvanov later said the goal was not to reach a compromise, but endorse a convincing candidate.

Parvanov earlier hinted he was considering whether to run for a third term, disputing interpretations of the Constitutions according to which no-one can hold the office more than two times.

The meeting was held after an internal referendum in the BSP which showed its membership was in favour of a joint presidential candidate. Socialist leader Korneliya Ninova then raised tensions with ABV by declaring Parvanov and his deputy Kalfin should be ruled out as joint candidates, even though no questions about names had been included in the poll.

Ninova later said she was not running. 

No major party has yet announced a presidential nomination.

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