dur 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) appointed 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
[Alexander TOMOV]; Alliance for National Salvation or ANS (coalition
led mainly by Movement for Rights and Freedoms or MRF [Ahmed DOGAN]);
Bulgarian Business Bloc or BBB [George GANCHEV]

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

International organization participation: ACCT, BIS, BSEC, CCC, CE,
CEI, EBRD, ECE, EU (applicant), FAO, G- 9, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU,
ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, IHO (pending member), ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat,
Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NACC, NAM (guest), NSG, OSCE,
PCA, PFP, UN, UNAVEM III, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIBH, UNMOT, UPU,
WEU (associate partner), WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC

Diplomatic representation in the US