re grouped under the party labels of the Union of Democratic Forces and the populist-oriented Bulgarian Agrarian Party (BAP). On March 12, 1990, the roundtable signed an agreement for peaceful transition to democracy. Petur Mladenov was designated the interim president to manage the transition, but was forced to resign on July 6 after a videotape was released to the press showing Mladenov advocating the use of tanks against opposition demonstrators in 1989 (Wyzan, 1991, p. 83).
As elections loomed on the horizon by the spring of 1990, the Bulgarian Communist Party changed their name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Most of the smaller opposition parties joined under the UDF umbrella organization. On June 10 and June 17, the elections resulted in a majority representation of the BSP in the National Assembly, holding 211 seats out of 400. The UDF won 144 seats, the Bulgarian Agrarian Party won 16, and the remainder were distributed among minority parties. The former communists excelled in the rural districts, while the
...