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
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 April 2023 to elect 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
Turnout | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | 1990 | 1991 | 1994 | 1997 | 2021 | 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
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GERB–SDS | 634,627 | 24.48 | 67 | +8 | |
We Continue the Change | 506,099 | 19.52 | 53 | –14 | |
Movement for Rights and Freedoms | 344,512 | 13.29 | 36 | +2 | |
Revival | 254,952 | 9.83 | 27 | +14 | |
BSP for Bulgaria | 232,958 | 8.98 | 25 | –1 | |
Democratic Bulgaria | 186,528 | 7.19 | 20 | +4 | |
Bulgarian Rise | 115,872 | 4.47 | 12 | +12 | |
There Is Such a People | 96,071 | 3.71 | 0 | –25 | |
Stand Up.BG | 25,207 | 0.97 | 0 | 0 | |
IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement | 20,177 | 0.78 | 0 | 0 | |
Movement of Independent Candidates | 10,324 | 0.40 | 0 | New | |
A Just Bulgaria (OSD–PDS–KOY) | 9,124 | 0.35 | 0 | New | |
Attack | 7,593 | 0.29 | 0 | 0 | |
Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland | 6,533 | 0.25 | 0 | 0 | |
People's Voice | 6,197 | 0.24 | 0 | 0 | |
Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy | 5,874 | 0.23 | 0 | 0 | |
Bulgarian Social Democracy – EuroLeft | 5,343 | 0.21 | 0 | 0 | |
Coalition for You Bulgaria | 5,097 | 0.20 | 0 | New | |
Conservative Union of the Right | 5,028 | 0.19 | 0 | 0 | |
Morality, Initiative and Patriotism | 4,536 | 0.17 | 0 | 0 | |
Direct Democracy | 4,061 | 0.16 | 0 | 0 | |
Unity National Movement | 4,039 | 0.16 | 0 | New | |
National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria | 3,520 | 0.14 | 0 | 0 | |
Bulgaria of Labor and Reason | 2,636 | 0.10 | 0 | New | |
People's Party "Truth and Only the Truth" | 2,522 | 0.10 | 0 | New | |
Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy | 1,849 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | |
Pravoto | 1,757 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | |
Bulgarian National Unification | 1,671 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |
Independents | 564 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | |
None of the above | 87,635 | 3.38 | – | – | |
Total | 2,592,906 | 100.00 | 240 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 2,592,906 | 99.65 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 9,042 | 0.35 | |||
Total votes | 2,601,948 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 6,620,820 | 39.30 | |||
Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria |
Presidential election
Presidential elections have been held since 1992. From 1996 onwards, presidential elections have been held every five years.
Candidate | Running mate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
Rumen Radev | Iliana Iotova | Independent (BSPzB, PP, ITN, IBG-NI) | 1,322,385 | 49.42 | 1,539,650 | 66.72 | |
Anastas Gerdzhikov | Nevyana Miteva | Independent (GERB–SDS) | 610,862 | 22.83 | 733,791 | 31.80 | |
Mustafa Karadayi | Iskra Mihaylova | Movement for Rights and Freedoms | 309,681 | 11.57 | |||
Kostadin Kostadinov | Elena Guncheva | Revival | 104,832 | 3.92 | |||
Lozan Panov | Maria Kasimova | Independent (Democratic Bulgaria) | 98,488 | 3.68 | |||
Luna Yordanova | Iglena Ilieva | Independent | 21,733 | 0.81 | |||
Volen Siderov | Magdalena Tasheva | Attack | 14,792 | 0.55 | |||
Svetoslav Vitkov | Veselin Belokonski | People's Voice | 13,972 | 0.52 | |||
Milen Mihov | Mariya Tsvetkova | VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement | 13,376 | 0.50 | |||
Rosen Milenov | Ivan Ivanov | Independent | 12,644 | 0.47 | |||
Goran Blagoev | Ivelina Georgieva | Republicans for Bulgaria | 12,323 | 0.46 | |||
Veselin Mareshki | Polina Tsankova | Volya Movement | 10,536 | 0.39 | |||
Valeri Simeonov | Tsvetan Manchev | Patriotic Front | 8,568 | 0.32 | |||
Nikolay Malinov | Svetlana Koseva | Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland | 8,213 | 0.31 | |||
Tsveta Kirilova | Georgi Tutanov | Independent | 7,706 | 0.29 | |||
Aleksandar Tomov | Lachezar Avramov | Bulgarian Social Democratic Party–EuroLeft | 7,235 | 0.27 | |||
Boyan Rasate | Elena Vatashka | Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy | 6,798 | 0.25 | |||
Marina Malcheva | Savina Lukanova | Independent | 6,315 | 0.24 | |||
Zhelyo Zhelev | Kalin Krulev | Society for a New Bulgaria | 6,154 | 0.23 | |||
Blagoy Petrevski | Sevina Hadjiyska | Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy | 5,518 | 0.21 | |||
Yolo Denev | Mario Filev | Independent | 5,394 | 0.20 | |||
Maria Koleva | Gancho Popov | Pravoto | 4,666 | 0.17 | |||
Georgi Georgiev-Goti | Stoyan Tsvetkov | Bulgarian National Unification | 2,958 | 0.11 | |||
None of the above | 60,786 | 2.27 | 34,169 | 1.48 | |||
Total | 2,675,935 | 100.00 | 2,307,610 | 100.00 | |||
Valid votes | 2,675,935 | 99.65 | 2,307,610 | 99.83 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 9,487 | 0.35 | 3,909 | 0.17 | |||
Total votes | 2,685,422 | 100.00 | 2,311,519 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 6,949,938 | 38.64 | 6,868,737 | 33.65 | |||
Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria (first round), Electoral Commission of Bulgaria (second round) |
European Parliament elections
Past European Parliament elections since 2007
Referendums
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
Recent elections
See also
References
- ↑ Bulgarien, 19. November 1922 : Anklage gegen Kriegsverbrecher Direct Democracy
- ↑ Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p368 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ↑ Nohlen & Stöver, p368
- ↑ Q&A: Bulgaria's nuclear energy referendum BBC News, 25 January 2013
- ↑ Bulgarians vote in referendum on nuclear energy Deutsche Welle
External links
- Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Ms Lyubka Savkova's Bulgarian Party Politics and Public Opinion Research Website hosted by the University of Sussex
- Parties and Elections
- Народно събрание на Република България/National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria
- Bulgarian News Agency
- Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009
- NSD: European Election Database - Bulgaria publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2009