Elections in Bulgaria

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 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

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

Results of the 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary elections, with distribution of seats by electoral district.

Main article: 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	GERB—SDS	669,924	25.39	69	+2
	PP–DB	621,069	23.54	64	–9
	Revival	358,174	13.58	37	+10
	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	347,700	13.18	36	0
	BSP for Bulgaria	225,914	8.56	23	–2
	There Is Such a People	103,971	3.94	11	+11
	Bulgarian Rise	77,420	2.93	0	–12
	The Left!	56,481	2.14	0	New
	Neutral Bulgaria	10,505	0.40	0	New
	Together	8,755	0.33	0	New
	People's Party "Truth and Only the Truth"	7,776	0.29	0	0
	Conservative Union of the Right	7,739	0.29	0	0
	National Movement for Stability and Progress	6,764	0.26	0	New
	Out of EU and NATO	6,598	0.25	0	New
	People's Voice	5,560	0.21	0	0
	Morality, Initiative and Patriotism	3,894	0.15	0	0
	Bulgarian Social Democracy – EuroLeft	2,633	0.10	0	0
	Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy	2,517	0.10	0	0
	Bulgarian National Unification	2,328	0.09	0	0
	Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy	1,753	0.07	0	0
	Socialist Party "Bulgarian Way"	730	0.03	0	New
	Independents	924	0.04	0	0
None of the above		109,095	4.14	–	–
Total		2,638,224	100.00	240	0
Valid votes		2,638,224	98.46
Invalid/blank votes		41,370	1.54
Total votes		2,679,594	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,594,593	40.63
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.

Main article: 2021 Bulgarian general election

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

Main article: European Parliament elections in Bulgaria

Past European Parliament elections since 2007

• 2007 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
• 2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
• 2014 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
• 2019 European Parliament election 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

Recent elections

Main article: 2023 Bulgarian local elections

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system

External links

• Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009 Archived 2009-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
• 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 Archived 2005-06-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Bulgarian News Agency
• Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009 Archived 2009-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
• NSD: European Election Database - Bulgaria Archived 2016-03-20 at the Wayback Machine publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2009