Bulgaria's two largest political parties, BSP and GERB, are still in a very close race for voter support, according to a recent poll.

The poll has been conducted by "Gallup International" between October 3 and 10, among 1013 Bulgarians of voting age by direct interviews at home.

22.3% would vote for BSP, GERB remains second political force with 19.2% of the vote, while the liberal predominantly ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedom, DPS, is at its traditional third place with 6%.

The potential of the recently founded, right-leaning Reformist Bloc still remains at levels from 5% to 6%. These figures were obtained by adding up the results of the various parties in the Bloc and from answers of the standard open-ended question such as "If the elections were to be held today ...," as well as the explicit question about the Reformist Bloc such as "Would you vote for..." The percentages of the new formation, however, are still hypothetical and reflect only potential levels, according to Gallup's pollsters.

Half of the supporters of the formerly-ruling center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party, GERB, believe that their party should enter into coalition with the Reformist Bloc, a fifth believe the opposite, and one third are undecided. When supporters of the Reformist Bloc were asked the same question, the picture is reversed. A possible joint action of the Reformist Bloc and GERB seems more desirable for supporters of GERB and much less attractive for supporters of the Bloc.

There are no significant changes in the approval of main personalities, including the leaders of the two major parties – GERB and the left-wing Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP.

Surveyed attitudes in October, however, indicate that the approval of the Chairman of BSP, Sergey Stanishev, is higher than the one for GERB leader, Boyko Borisov, 27.5% and 22.2%, respectively.

However, the disapproval of the Socialist leader stands at 62.9%, while Borisov has 59.7%.

The positions of former President, Georgi Parvanov, Mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova, and Ombudsman, Konstantin Penchev, show slight improvement in October, while support for current President, Rosen Plevneliev, is at risk over him taking the side of antigovernment protesters.

Developments in the parliamentary debate in recent weeks have apparently influenced the confidence in the Parliament, which has dropped to 15%, a very low level, comparable to the lowest during the previous terms of GERB and the Three-Way Coalition.

Confidence in the government stands at 30% and the disapproval is twice as high.

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