Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov had scheduled the elections for the National Assembly for July 5, 2009, the President's Press Secretariat announced on Tuesday.
The President's Press Secretariat said that following consultations with parliamentary-represented parties and coalitions, Parvanov issued decrees dealing with the organization of the elections and the members of the Central Electoral Commission.
The decrees will be promulgated in the State Gazette on April 30.
President Parvanov concluded that he looked forward to free and fair elections and a high turnout.
Bulgaria will hold European Parliament elections about a month before the general elections, on June 7.
Polls show that the opposition GERB party of popular Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov is expected to garner 26 percent of the votes and the ruling Socialists are likely to get 16 percent in the European Parliament elections.
If the elections for MEPs were held now, the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a key coalition partner of the Socialists, would gather nine percent of the votes, followed by their arch rivals, the nationalist Ataka with six percent, according to the survey of local pollsters MBMD.
No more than five percent of the respondents said they will support the coalition of the two biggest right-wing parties, Democrats for Strong Bulgaria and the United Democratic Forces, while the conservative right-wing Order, Law and Justice Party will collect two percent of the votes.
The third partner in the current ruling coalition, the party of former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg, is expected to garner hardly one percent of the votes.