(Bloomberg) -- Bulgaria's Gerb, the party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, nominated Tsetska Tsacheva, the parliament speaker, to run for president in the Nov. 6 election in the Balkan country.
President Rosen Plevneliev, elected on the ticket of Gerb in 2011, said he won't run for re-election after his term in office ends in January 2017. The president, whose powers are largely ceremonial, is elected in a direct ballot with a minimum 50 percent of the votes, according to the constitution. Opposition socialists named Rumen Radev, a former Air Force commander.
“Tsacheva is an experienced lawyer, parliamentarian, well-prepared to deal with Bulgarian institutions and defend Bulgaria's authority abroad,” Borissov told reporters in Sofia on Sunday. “It's time to have a mother of the nation after many fathers, for a change.”
The European Union's poorest country by per-capita output is trying to bring living standards up to EU levels and keep its economy growing as the bloc faces numerous crises, from a record migrant influx to economic unpredictability following the U.K.'s decision to leave the union. Borissov's government seeks to join the ERM-2 pre-euro exchange rate mechanism, though it hasn't officially applied yet.
Borissov, who returned to power after winning snap elections in 2014, said the presidential election is a vote of confidence in his party. Gerb has the support of 24 percent of voters, trailed by the Socialists with 16 percent, according to a survey by Alpha Research pollster conducted Sept. 9-15 among 1,026 people. It gave no margin of error.
Tsacheva, a 58-year-old lawyer, served as Bulgaria's first female parliament speaker during Gerb's first term in power in 2009-2013, and was reappointed in 2014. She'll run with Plamen Manushev as vice president, a 62-year-old lawmaker, vice admiral and a former Navy Commander, Borissov said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Slav Okov in Sofia at sokov@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Konstantinova, Rob Verdonck
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
