The upcoming elections due to be held on October 23d will take place in a tense situation prompted by the strongly exacerbated relations between the governing majority and the opposition. The election campaign on the local level and especially on the national level will run under the sign of all parliamentary represented parties standing against the GERB Party, as all of them – with the only exception of the MRF – have nominated presidential candidates of their own. The upcoming presidential election is extremely important for the GERB Party because it will actually reveal what the public assessment for their gov­ernance is. The victory of the GERB Party nominees will consolidate the posi­tions of the government. An election defeat, however, could bring about an enhanced pressure on the part of the opposition and will consequently result in a fresh regrouping of the political parties in the country along the lines of support/opposition attitudes as regards the GERB Party. Opinion poll surveys indicate that Rossen Plevneliev, the GERB Party presi­dential nominee, is currently the runner-up among all the rest of the presiden­tial nominees. This, however, does not mean that the election outcome is a foregone conclusion. The major challenge Plevneliev is facing at present is his own capacity to build up the image of a nation-wide politician in the course of the short election campaign, as well as the image of a person capable of coping with the challenges of the presidential post. The upcoming presidential election will also map out the prospects for development of the BSP over the next year and are especially important from an internal party point of view. The BSP presidential nominee, Ivailo Kalfin, is a person to whom the BSP electorate has not given an unequivocal assessment thus far. With the nomination of Stephan Danailov as Kalfin’s running mate on the BSP presidential ticket, however, the consolidation of the left-wing vot­ers now seems to be an achievable task. A possible adverse result for the BSP and especially a defeat by Meglena Kuneva will exacerbate the party infight­ings and will give sufficient reasons for Stanishev’s opponents to surge up.