Elections in Bulgaria

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Bulgaria elects on the national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term directly by the people. The National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie) has 240 members elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies with a 4% threshold. Bulgaria has a multi-party system in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone and parties must work with each to form governments.

Parliamentary elections[edit]

Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 April 2023 to elect the members of the National Assembly. Parliamentary elections have been held in Bulgaria since 1879. There was a period when partisan politics was banned from 1934 to 1944; in the wake of the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934 and the sequential personal rule of Tsar Boris III. There was also period of single party system between 1945 and 1989, during the People's Republic of Bulgaria, during which only candidates sanctioned by authorities could run. This, in practice, gave the Bulgarian Communist Party and its collaborators a monopoly on power.

Until 1945 there was no universal suffrage for the women. The table below show the elections since 1990, when the government became a democratic republic.

All elections since 1991 have had 240 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies with a 4% threshold. The two elections that differed from this model was the 1990 Grand National Assembly election, where 400 representatives were elected: half by proportional representation and half by first-past-the-post voting. The other exception was the 2009 election when 209 representatives were elected by proportional representation and 31 through first past the post; seats corresponding to the provinces and the largest cities.

Parliamentary election results[edit]

Turnout
1986 1990 1991 1994 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2014 2017 April 2021 July 2021 Nov 2021 2022 2023
99.92% 90.78% 83.87% 75.23% 58.87% 66.63% 55.76% 60.64% 52.47% 49.51% 52.57% 49.10% 40.39% 38.64 39.30% 40.63%

Recent elections[edit]

Results of the 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary elections, with distribution of seats by electoral district.
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
GERB—SDS669,92425.3969+2
PP–DB621,06923.5464–9
Revival358,17413.5837+10
Movement for Rights and Freedoms347,70013.18360
BSP for Bulgaria225,9148.5623–2
There Is Such a People103,9713.9411+11
Bulgarian Rise77,4202.930–12
The Left!56,4812.140New
Neutral Bulgaria10,5050.400New
Together [bg]8,7550.330New
People's Party "Truth and Only the Truth" [bg]7,7760.2900
Conservative Union of the Right7,7390.2900
National Movement for Stability and Progress6,7640.260New
Out of EU and NATO [bg]6,5980.250New
People's Voice5,5600.2100
Morality, Initiative and Patriotism3,8940.1500
Bulgarian Social Democracy – EuroLeft2,6330.1000
Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy [bg]2,5170.1000
Bulgarian National Unification2,3280.0900
Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy1,7530.0700
Socialist Party "Bulgarian Way" [bg]7300.030New
Independents9240.0400
None of the above109,0954.14
Total2,638,224100.002400
Valid votes2,638,22498.46
Invalid/blank votes41,3701.54
Total votes2,679,594100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,594,59340.63
Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria

Presidential election[edit]

Presidential elections have been held since 1992. From 1996 onwards, presidential elections have been held every five years.

CandidateRunning matePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Rumen RadevIliana IotovaIndependent (BSPzB, PP, ITN, IBG-NI)1,322,38549.421,539,65066.72
Anastas GerdzhikovNevyana MitevaIndependent (GERBSDS)610,86222.83733,79131.80
Mustafa KaradayiIskra MihaylovaMovement for Rights and Freedoms309,68111.57
Kostadin KostadinovElena GunchevaRevival104,8323.92
Lozan PanovMaria KasimovaIndependent (Democratic Bulgaria)98,4883.68
Luna YordanovaIglena IlievaIndependent21,7330.81
Volen SiderovMagdalena TashevaAttack14,7920.55
Svetoslav VitkovVeselin BelokonskiPeople's Voice13,9720.52
Milen MihovMariya TsvetkovaVMRO – Bulgarian National Movement13,3760.50
Rosen MilenovIvan IvanovIndependent12,6440.47
Goran BlagoevIvelina GeorgievaRepublicans for Bulgaria12,3230.46
Veselin MareshkiPolina TsankovaVolya Movement10,5360.39
Valeri SimeonovTsvetan ManchevPatriotic Front8,5680.32
Nikolay MalinovSvetlana KosevaRussophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland8,2130.31
Tsveta KirilovaGeorgi TutanovIndependent7,7060.29
Aleksandar TomovLachezar AvramovBulgarian Social Democratic PartyEuroLeft7,2350.27
Boyan RasateElena VatashkaBulgarian National Union – New Democracy6,7980.25
Marina MalchevaSavina LukanovaIndependent6,3150.24
Zhelyo ZhelevKalin KrulevSociety for a New Bulgaria6,1540.23
Blagoy PetrevskiSevina HadjiyskaBulgarian Union for Direct Democracy5,5180.21
Yolo DenevMario FilevIndependent5,3940.20
Maria KolevaGancho PopovPravoto4,6660.17
Georgi Georgiev-GotiStoyan TsvetkovBulgarian National Unification2,9580.11
None of the above60,7862.2734,1691.48
Total2,675,935100.002,307,610100.00
Valid votes2,675,93599.652,307,61099.83
Invalid/blank votes9,4870.353,9090.17
Total votes2,685,422100.002,311,519100.00
Registered voters/turnout6,949,93838.646,868,73733.65
Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria (first round), Electoral Commission of Bulgaria (second round)

European Parliament elections[edit]

Past European Parliament elections since 2007[edit]

Referendums[edit]

Four nationwide referendums have been held in Bulgaria since it gained its De Facto independence in 1878:

  • On 19 November 1922 the question was if criminals from the three previous wars were to be prosecuted;[1]
  • On 8 September 1946 the question was if Bulgaria was to remain a monarchy to become a republic;[2]
  • On 16 May 1971 the nation's approval of a new constitution was asked;[3]
  • On 27 January 2013 the question was if Bulgaria should develop its nuclear power by building a new nuclear power plant.[4][5]
  • On 25 October 2015 the question was if Bulgaria should introduce electronic voting.
  • On 6 November 2016 voters were asked three questions. The questions were: Whether they supported limiting public funding of political parties; the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referendums; and changing the electoral system for the National Assembly to the two-round system.

Several regional referendums have been held as well.

Local elections[edit]

Recent elections[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bulgarien, 19. November 1922 : Anklage gegen Kriegsverbrecher Direct Democracy
  2. ^ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p368 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  3. ^ Nohlen & Stöver, p368
  4. ^ Q&A: Bulgaria's nuclear energy referendum BBC News, 25 January 2013
  5. ^ Bulgarians vote in referendum on nuclear energy Deutsche Welle

External links[edit]