rage:
universalandcompulsoryatage 18
Elections:
National Assembly:
last held 13 October 1991; results - BSP 33%, UDF 34%, MRF 7.5%; seats -
(240 total) BSP 106, UDF 110, Movement for Rights and Freedoms 24
President:
last held 12 January 1992; second round held 19 January 1992; results -
Zhelyu ZHELEV was elected by popular vote
Communists:
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), formerly Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP),
501,793 members; several small Communist parties

:Bulgaria Government

Other political or pressure groups:
Ecoglasnost; Podkrepa (Support) Labor Confederation; Fatherland Union;
Bulgarian Democratic Youth (formerly Communist Youth Union); Confederation
of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria (KNSB); Nationwide Committee for
Defense of National Interests; Peasant Youth League; Bulgarian Agrarian
National Union - United (BZNS); Bulgarian Democratic Center; "Nikola Petkov"
Bulgarian Agrarian National Union; Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization - Union of Macedonian Societies (IMRO-UMS); numerous regional,
ethnic, and national interest groups with various agendas
Member of:
BIS, CCC, CE, CSCE, EBRD, ECE, FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, IIB, ILO,
IMF, IMO, INMARSAT, IOC, ISO, ITU, LORCS, NACC, NSG, PCA, UN, UNCTAD,
UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO
Diplomatic representation:
Ambassador Ognyan PISHEV; Chancery at 1621 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC
20008; telephone (202) 387-7969
US:
Ambassador Hugh Kenneth HILL; Embassy at 1 Alexander Stamboliski Boulevard,
Sofia (mailing address is APO AE 09213-5740); telephone [359] (2) 88-48-01
through 05; Embassy has no FAX machine
Flag:
three equal horizontal bands of white (top), green, and red; the national
emblem formerly on the hoist side of the white stripe has been removed - it
contained a rampant lion within a wreath of wheat ears below a red
five-pointed star and above a ribbon bearing the dates 681 (first Bulgarian
state established) and 1944 (liberation from Nazi control)

:Bulgaria Economy

Overview:
Growth in the lackluster Bulgarian economy fell to the 2% annual level in
the 1980s. By 1990, Sofia's foreign debt had skyrocketed to over $10 billion
- giving a debt-service ratio of more than 40% of hard currency earnings and
leading the regime to declare a moratorium on its hard currency payments.
The pos