Bulgaria's ruling center-right party GERB will not team up with partners in the upcoming local and presidential polls in the autumn and is confident of its success, the interior minister said on Sunday.

"Our policies should be led only by the interests of the citizens. GERB will participate only with pragmatic future solutions. We will keep the continuity of the policies in the local government, so that we continue the good things that will be implemented by the relevant local authorities," Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who is also head of the elections headquarters of the ruling GERB party, said at the presentation of his staff.

He did not rule out completely potential partnershipс with all political groups after the elections, but said GERB success in the race is a sure bet.

"I can assure you that the future president of the country will come from the ranks of our party," Tsvetanov said, adding that the runner's name will be announced in May or June.

The ruling GERB party has 117 of a total of 240 seats in Bulgaria's unicameral parliament and has so far ruled with the support of 20 deputies from Ataka and 14 members of the small center-right Blue Coalition.

Time is already ticking away for Bulgaria's presidential and local pre-election campaign.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has expressed conviction that his party has among its ranks at least five likely nominees able to sweep the elections for the high, though largely ceremonial, office of president. He has even hinted to journalists that he might run for president.

Meanwhile internet forums in Bulgaria are overflowing with calls for the highly popular Kristalina Georgieva, currently the EU's humanitarian aid commissioner, to run in next year's presidential elections.

The ruling party GERB is unlikely to nominate Interior Minister Tsvetanov, as initially planned, because of the string of discrediting information revealed about him recently, but it is still unclear whether Kristalina Georgieva will agree to run or Boyko Borisov's real political goal will prove to be the presidential office.

The most disputed aspect of the vote is the prospect of former special agent of the State Agency for National Security (DANS) and controversial businessman, Aleksei Petrov, running in it.

Bulgaria nationalist leader Volen Siderov has also said he is determined to run - again - for the office. Siderov has been promoting openly his racist beliefs, which disgusted many Bulgarians but fascinated others.

The popularity of the national leader however has weakened tremendously over the last year and analysts say there is no risk of Siderov's making a breakthrough and inciting ethnic tension, something that has brought dramas in the Balkan region.

Despite the mostly ceremonial duties of the post, the president can name figures to bodies like the secret service, the media watchdog and others to extend his influence.

Incumbent Socialist President Georgi Parvanov was re-elected for a second five-year term in 2006 and isn't eligible to run in next year's presidential elections.

The candidates in 2011 elections will probably inspire more than one out of six million voters, the turnout during the previous vote in 2006, but the winner, will hardly be able to call himself president of all Bulgarians.

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