he Council of Ministers (Prime
Minister) Ivan Kostov (since 19 May 1997); Deputy Prime Ministers
Aleksandur BOZHKOV (since 12 February 1997 Evgeniy BAKURDZHIEV (since
21 May 1997), Veselin METODIEV (since 21 May 1997)
cabinet: Council of Ministers elected by the National Assembly
elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by
popular vote for five-year terms; election last held 27 October and 3
November 1996 (next to be held NA 2001); chairman of the Council of
Ministers (prime minister) nominated by the president
election results: Petar STOYANOV elected president; percent of
vote-Petar STOYANOV 59.73%

Legislative branch: unicameral National Assembly or Narodno Sobranie
(240 seats; members are popularly elected to serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 19 April 1997 (next to be held NA 2001)
election results: percent of vote by party-UDF 52%, BSP 22%, ANS 7%,
Euro-left 5.5%, BBB 4.95%; seats by party-UDF 137, BSP 58, ANS 19,
Euro-left 14, BBB 12

Judicial branch: Supreme Court, chairman appointed for a seven-year
term by the president; Constitutional Court, 12 justices appointed or
elected for a nine-year term

Political parties and leaders: Bulgarian Socialist Party or BSP
[Georgi PURVANOV, chairman]; Union of Democratic Forces or UDF (an
alliance of pro-Democratic parties) [Ivan KOSTOV]; Euro-left
[Aleksandur TOMOV]; Alliance for National Salvation or ANS (coalition
led mainly by Movement for Rights and Freedoms or DPS [Ahmed DOGAN]);
Bulgarian Business Bloc or BBB [Georgi GANCHEV]; People's Union
[Anastasiya MOZER and Stefan SAVOV, cochairmen]

Political pressure groups and leaders: Democratic Alliance for the
Republic or DAR; New Union for Democracy or NUD; Podkrepa Labor
Confederation; Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria
or CITUB; Bulgarian Agrarian National Union-United or BZNS; Bulgarian
Democratic Center; "Nikola Petkov" Bulgarian Agrarian National Union;
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or IMRO; Agrarian
movement; numerous regional, ethnic, and national interest groups with
various agendas

International organization participation: ACCT, BIS, BSEC, CCC, CE,
CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, EU (applicant), FAO, G-9, IAEA, IBEC, IBRD,
ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, IIB, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,
Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO, ITU, MONUA, NAM (guest), NSG, OSCE, PCA,
PFP, UN, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIBH, UNMOT, UPU, WEU (associate partner),
WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WM