Elections in Bulgaria

Bulgaria elects on 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 no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each to form governments.

Parliamentary elections

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 1990 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.

Recent elections

Main article: 2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election

Results of the election, showing vote strength by electoral district.

Five parties crossed the 4% threshold required to gain seats. GERB maintained their position as the largest party.

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	GERB	1,147,292	32.65	–0.0	95	+11
	BSP for Bulgaria	955,490	27.19	+11.8	80	+41
	United Patriots	318,513	9.07	+4.3	27	–3
	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	315,976	8.99	–5.9	26	–12
	Volya	145,637	4.15	New	12	New
	Reformist Bloc	107,407	3.06	–5.8	0	–23
	Yes, Bulgaria!	101,177	2.88	New	0	New
	Association DOST	100,479	2.86	New	0	New
	New Republic	86,984	2.48	New	0	New
	Alternative for Bulgarian Revival–Movement 21	54,412	1.55	–2.6	0	–11
	Revival	37,896	1.08	New	0	New
	Party of the Greens	10,159	0.29	–0.3	0	0
	Bulgarian Spring	9,232	0.26	New	0	New
	Forward Bulgaria Movement	6,644	0.19	New	0	New
	Coalition of the Dissatisfied	5,945	0.17	New	0	New
	Movement for an Equal Public Model	4,989	0.14	New	0	New
	Bulgarian National Unification	3,921	0.11	New	0	New
	Bulgarian Democratic Center	3,130	0.09	New	0	New
	WHO–BL–ZP	2,916	0.08		0	0
	National Republican Party	2,325	0.07	New	0	New
	Independents	5,116	0.15	–0.0	0	0
None of the above		87,850	2.50	–	–	–
Total		3,513,490	100.00	–	240	0
Valid votes		3,513,490	95.41
Invalid/blank votes		169,009	4.59
Total votes		3,682,499	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,838,235	53.85
Source: CIK

Voter demographics

Gallup exit polling suggested the following demographic breakdown.

Voter demographics
Social group	% GERB	% BSP	% OP	% DPS	% Volya	% RB	% Yes!	% DOST	% Others	% Lead
Exit poll result	33	28	10	9	4	3	3	3	7	5
Final result	32.7	27.2	9.1	9.0	4.2	3.1	2.9	2.8	8	5.5
Gender
Men	31	25	10	9	5	4	3	3	9	6
Women	33	30	8	8	4	3	4	2	8	3
Age
18–30	32	14	7	11	5	5	8	4	13	18
30-60	34	23	10	9	6	5	4	2	7	11
60+	26	44	9	6	3	1	1	2	8	18
Highest Level of Education
Lower education	21	28	6	26	2	2	0	9	6	2
Secondary education	34	26	10	8	5	4	2	2	9	8
Higher education	32	28	8	3	4	6	7	0	11	4
Ethnic Group
Bulgarian	34	30	11	1	5	4	5	1	9	4
Turkish	14	8	0	53	2	0	1	19	3	34
Roma	28	21	2	23	1	7	0	9	9	5
Location
Towns and villages	28	26	8	21	3	2	0	10	10	2
Smaller cities	29	32	11	8	5	4	2	4	5	3
Larger cities	35	27	9	3	6	5	4	0	11	8
Sofia	33	23	7	1	3	8	12	0	13	10
How they vote in second round of 2016 presidential election
Rumen Radev - 53,4%	9	48	11	10	4	3	2	2	11	37
Tsetska Tsacheva - 30,5%	75	2	4	3	4	4	2	2	4	71
No one/didn't vote - 16,1%	25	5	13	11	8	7	10	5	16	12

Presidential election

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

Main article: 2016 Bulgarian presidential election

Candidate		Running mate	Party	First round		Second round
				Votes	%	Votes	%
	Rumen Radev	Iliana Iotova	Independent (Bulgarian Socialist Party)	973,754	25.44	2,063,032	59.37
	Tsetska Tsacheva	Plamen Manushev	GERB	840,635	21.96	1,256,485	36.16
	Krasimir Karakachanov	Yavor Notev	United Patriots	573,016	14.97
	Veselin Mareshki	Petar Petrov	Independent	427,660	11.17
	Plamen Oresharski	Danail Papazov	Independent	253,726	6.63
	Traycho Traykov	Sabi Sabev	Reformist Bloc	224,734	5.87
	Ivailo Kalfin	Lyubomir Halachev	Alternative for Bulgarian Revival	125,531	3.28
	Tatyana Doncheva	Mincho Spasov	Movement 21–NDSV	69,372	1.81
	George Ganchev	Kolyo Paramov	Christian Social Union	27,928	0.73
	Velizar Enchev	Bilyana Grancharova	Movement for Radical Change Bulgarian Spring	18,213	0.48
	Dimitar Marinov	Radoslav Petrov	Bulgarian National Unification	14,974	0.39
	Rumen Galabinov	Veska Voleva	Independent	10,286	0.27
	Plamen Paskov	Svetozar Saev	Independent	10,103	0.26
	Aleksandar Tomov	Radoslav Radoslavov	Bulgarian Social Democracy–EuroLeft	9,513	0.25
	Gospodin Tonev	Andrey Andreev	Bulgarian Democratic Community	6,855	0.18
	Kemil Ramadan	Momchil Dobrev	Balkanic Democratic League	6,089	0.16
	Kamen Popov	Georgi Nedelchev	Independent	5,212	0.14
	Diana Dimitrova	Gabriel Gerasimov	Independent	4,362	0.11
	Nikolay Banev	Sali Ibrayim	Independent	4,196	0.11
	Yordanka Koleva	Veselin Hristov	Independent	4,182	0.11
	Biser Milanov	Krasimir Nastev	Independent	3,215	0.08
None of the above				214,094	5.59	155,411	4.47
Total				3,827,650	100.00	3,474,928	100.00
Valid votes				3,827,650	96.96	3,474,928	98.14
Invalid/blank votes				119,925	3.04	66,036	1.86
Total votes				3,947,575	100.00	3,540,964	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				7,014,723	56.28	7,020,119	50.44
Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria

European Parliament elections

Main article: European Parliament elections in Bulgaria

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;
• On 8 September 1946 the question was if Bulgaria was to remain a monarchy to become a republic;
• On 16 May 1971 the nation's approval of a new constitution was asked;
• On 27 January 2013 the question was if Bulgaria should develop its nuclear power by building a new nuclear power plant.
• 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

Main article: Bulgarian local elections, 2015

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

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