Elections to be Held October 5, Parliament Dissolves August 6

Bulgaria is to hold early elections on October 5 and is to have a caretaker government after President dissolves Parliament in August, the county's head of state announced.

After political consultations at the Presidency attended by most of the major parties, it was decided that no other government would be sought within the current legislature.

"The resignation of the "Oresharski" cabinet will be conformed to the time necessary to hold consultations and form an interim government under the Constitution. With a presidential decree, as of August 6, 2014, the 42th People's Assembly [Parliament] is due to be dissolved and a caretaker government is to be appointed," Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev told the media in a statement aired live after talks.

Under Bulgarian Constitution, forging an interim government is the President's priority.

Both parliamentary parties (socialist BSP, liberal DPS, conservative GERB and far-right Ataka) and those who are not in the legislature but won MEP seats at European Parliament elections in May (Bulgaria without Censorship and the Reformist Bloc) are to be included in talks on creating the caretaker cabinet.

October 5 was among three dates picked for early elections during this week's political consultations held in Parliament on June 27.

Ivan Iskrov, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), also attended Sunday's talks to restate the central bank's commitment to maintaining the stability of the banking system after rumors caused panic about the future of certain financial institutions and forced some people into withdrawing their savings.