Bulgaria's DPS 'Could Have Record Number of MPs' after Snap Vote

The Movement For Rights and Freedoms (DPS) are standing every chance of getting 40 MP seats within the next legislature, an expert has predicted.

Prof. Mihail Konstantinov, formerly election watchdog member and ex-head of the state company counting the ballots, has put the DPS's projected result at 550 000 votes.

The figure would secure the party some 40 to 42 lawmakers in the National Assembly which is to assume office after the October 5 early elections.

Konstantinov told Focus News Agency center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), tipped as a winner by virtually every poll, would have about 100 MPs, 21 short of having an absolute majority which would enable them to form a government on their own.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) will have nearly half as many, or 55 to 60.

Out of the 240 MP seats in the Bulgarian National Assembly, the remainder (40-45 seats) would be distributed among right-wing Reformist Bloc and journalist-turned-politician Nikolay Barekov's Bulgaria without Censorship, Konstantinov believes.

He added it was rather unlikely for the Patriotic Front, which is a nationalist coalition, and President (2002-2011) Georgi Parvanov's Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV), portraying itself as an alternative to the BSP, to enter "both".

Five parties are "clear, and the sixth will be sent out... by [either] the Patriotic Front [or] ABV. They might turn out to be seven, but it is unlikely," he elaborated.

Konstantinov added he expected a more "moderate" campaign.

He also warned a wave of protests would follow if the BSP came to power again.

Bulgaria, and especially the capital Sofia, was rocked by demonstrations last summer after the previous BSP-DPS government appointed liberal lawmaker Delyan Peevski head of the State Agency for National Security (DANS).

Konstantinov advised both parties to stay away from power "for a certain time", with especially the BSP needing a given period in opposition to turn once more into a political party.

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