Bulgarian government resigns ahead of early elections

Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski submitted the resignation of his government to the National Assembly Wednesday ahead of early parliamentary elections already agreed to between the main political forces.

The resignation will be voted in parliament Thursday or Friday, and under the agreement reached in late June, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev will Aug 6 dissolve the National Assembly and appoint a caretaker government, Xinhua reported.

According to the Bulgarian Constitution, the core task of the caretaker government is to organise the parliamentary elections that will be held Oct 5.

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) government led by Oresharski was elected last May and survived five no-confidence votes supported by the 83 members of BSP's parliamentary group, 36 legislators of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) and the 23-member Ataka party in the 240-seat National Assembly.

However, MRF triggered the end of the government and this parliament June 5 demanding early parliamentary elections.

The mandate of the government and the parliament was marked by almost half a year of protests that began in mid-June after the controversial appointment of Delyan Peevski, a media mogul and legislator from MRF, as chairman of the State Agency for National Security.