Polls reveal shrinking support for the government, but people don't see the point in new elections

The local elections did not have a significant impact on the electoral picture in the country, according to a survey by the Trend polling agency.

The distance between the two leading political forces remains within 7%. The polls reveal an erosion of public support for the government and high distrust of the electoral process - nearly half of Bulgarians believe the local vote was unfair.

Parliament remains at traditionally low levels of positive evaluation (14%). There has been a marginal erosion in positive evaluations of the government from 22% in September and October to 20% in November. Negative evaluations rose by 5% in one month to 71%. The support of the We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria supporters is maintained - 4/5 of them give a positive assessment of the Denkov cabinet. While in previous polls GERB voters were divided into two roughly equal groups, in November the majority of them did not support the cabinet. Nearly a third of MRF supporters also gave a positive assessment. The electorates of the remaining formations, in their overwhelming majority, express a negative assessment.

There is no significant change in the support for the president - 36% give a positive assessment of his work and 51% a negative one.

Disapproval of the government is increasing.

Local elections have not had a significant impact on the electoral picture in the country. GERB remains the first political force with 24.7% support among voters, followed by the "We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria" alliance (17.9%). "Vazrazhdane" retains its third position with 15.4% support among voters. Fourth in the ranking is MRF (13.3%), while the fifth place remains for BSP (9.4%). There is Such a People retains its position on the edge of the parliamentary barrier with 4.4%.

No increase was registered in the desire for early parliamentary elections. Attitudes in November remained similar to those of recent months, with 30% wanting new elections and 47% saying they were not needed.

Evaluation of the past local elections shows high distrust of the electoral process. Nearly half (47%) of adult Bulgarians believe the vote was not fair. Only 19% define the past elections as fair, and this share is higher among the electorate of WCC-DB and GERB. MRF voters are divided on the issue, while the majority of BSP and Vazrazhdane voters describe the elections as unfair.

The prevailing feeling is that the local elections will not bring about change - this is shared by 44% of the Bulgarians. 29% are optimistic that their municipality will develop in a positive direction after the local elections, while another 16% think that the future of their municipality will be worse.

A third of Bulgarians believe that the abolition of machine voting for the first round of the local elections has made the elections less fair. A similar proportion (32%) think it has not affected the fairness of the vote. Only 11% think it has made the elections fairer.

The majority of Bulgarians (59%) think that mixed voting with a choice between paper ballot and voting machines should be maintained. Just over a fifth (21%) think it is better to move to an all-machine vote and 11% to an all-paper ballot.

In terms of personal preference for voting method, 41% indicate machine voting and 25% paper ballot voting. Three in ten indicated that the method did not matter to them.

There is a significant generational correlation, with the majority of people under 50 expressing a preference for machine voting, while for voters over 70, over two-thirds indicate the paper ballot.

The majority of WCC-DB and Vazrazhdane voters prefer to vote by machine, while BSP supporters prefer to exercise their right to vote by paper to the greatest extent, followed by MRF supporters.

*The survey was commissioned by the newspaper "24 hours" and was conducted in the period 11-18 November 2023 through a direct semi-standardized face-to-face interview among 1006 adult Bulgarians.

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