Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is meeting Friday with representatives of all four parties that made it to Parliament after the May 12 general elections.

Plevneliev will have talks with the center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria GERB party starting 10 am on Friday. His meeting with representatives of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, BSP, will start an hour later.

The President will then talk with the liberal ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, DPS, and the nationalist Ataka, at 12 pm and 1 pm respectively.

A discussion about GERB wanting to void the election results will be on the table as well.

"Bulgaria does not need new elections. This may destabilize the country," Plevneliev said Wednesday, addressing widespread fears of a political stalemate in the new Parliament.

"The quick formation of a new government is crucial," he stated.

Plevneliev called upon all four parties to hold transparent negotiations.

BSP and DPS have already called for convening the Parliament as quickly as possible.

Under the Bulgarian Constitution, Plevneliev is obliged to make the move within one month after the elections, but he is expected to convene the elected MPs as early as next week with the most likely date being May 23.

As the Constitution requires, the President must first offer the mandate to the largest party in the Parliament.

Most probably he will hand over the mandate to the recently ousted centrist GERB party of former Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, which took a slight lead in the election results over their arch rivals – the Socialist Party.

If GERB fails to appoint a government within a 7-day deadline, then the mandate goes to the second largest party – BSP. If the Socialists fail or refuse to form a Cabinet – the mandate will be given to DPS, which came up third, and then – to the fourth and last formation to win seats in Bulgaria's 42nd General Assembly – the far-right nationalist Ataka.

If none of the four succeeds to form a government, the President has to appoint a caretaker government, and, with one single decree, adjourn the Parliament and schedule a new general election within 2 months of dissolving the Parliament.

GERB, gathered 30.503% of the votes in Sunday's general election, final results show.

Left-wing BSP is next with 26.614%, followed by DPS with 11.293% and the far-right, nationalist Ataka - 7.302%. All other parties running in Sunday's vote have remained below the 4% election threshold.

According to the final CEC count – GERB + Ataka will have together 120 seats and DPS + BSP – another 120 in the 240-seats unicameral Parliament.

The number of MP seats each of the four parties have won are as follows – 97 for GERB, 84 for BSP, 36 for DPS, and 23 for Ataka.

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