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Local elections in Bulgaria were held on 29 October 2023. [1] Mayors and municipal councillors across the country were elected. [2]
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Local elections in Bulgaria were held on 29 October 2023. [1] Mayors and municipal councillors across the country were elected. [2]
The elections to Bulgaria's municipal councils are conducted via proportional representation with an open list preferential voting system.
The mayoral elections take place within the context of a majoritarian two-round system. The first round of the elections will be held on 29 October. If no candidate in a given constituency manages to gain 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held for that constituency in the second round on 5 November. [3]
Voting is officially mandatory, but in practice there is no punishment for failing to vote and the law itself isn't strictly enforced. [4]
Voters further have the option to vote against all proposed candidates. [5]
| Name | Location | Ideology | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leader(s) | |||||
| Unification for Plovdiv | Bulgarian Cause | Plovdiv | Local politics | Georgi Tityukov | |
| New Leaders | Plovdiv | Local politics Direct democracy | |||
| RzSR | Development for Septemvri and the Region | Septemvri | Local politics | Radoslav Lyutakov | |
| SzP | Union for Plovdiv | Plovdiv | Local politics Liberal conservatism | Yevelin Paraskov Veselin Kozarev | |
| BzR | Future of the Motherland | Stara Zagora | Local politics | Stanislav Popov | |
| DzPP | Movement for the Prosperity of Pernik | Pernik | Local politics | Stanislav Vladimirov | |
| SS | Spasi Sofia | Sofia | Local politics Anti-corruption | Boris Bonev | |
| MORE | More | Nesebar | Local politics Rural interests | Peycho Kolev | |
The election for the position of Mayor of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital and largest city, is expected to be hotly contested and will result in a new mayor being elected, as incumbent mayor Yordanka Fandakova from GERB has announced she will not seek re-election.
Opinion polls for Mayor of Sofia
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample | Vasil Terziev | Anton Hekimyan | Dean Nikolov | Vanya Grigorova | Vili Lilkov | Others | None of the above | Lead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PP | DB | SS | GERB | SDS | Revival | BSP | Levitsata! | |||||||
| ЕСТАТ | 29.09-9.10 2023 | 800 | 27.8 | 18.7 | 20.6 | 6.4 | 7.2 | |||||||
| CAM | 21–25 Jul 2023 | 1,212 | 33.4 | 22.7 | 12.0 | 10.6 | 4.8 | 7.9 | 2.7 | 10.7 | ||||
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2023) |
According to Central Election Commission the number of people who voted on 29 October totaled 2,713,979 or 44.94% of eligible voters. The turnout was 49.76% in the 2019 local elections. The invalid ballots in the 29 October, 2023 elections totaled over half a million, including 412,711 ballots for municipal councilors, 94,195 for municipality mayor (down from 128,204 in 2019) and 34,235 for mayoralty mayor. [6]
In general, GERB had the strongest showing throughout the country, although the party failed to make it to the second round in the capital. [7]
Overall, GERB won 11 regional towns, PP–DB won four, and the Bulgarian Socialist party won three. Of the largest four cities, PP-DB won in the capital (Sofia) and Varna while GERB won in Plovdiv and Burgas. [8]
The politics of Bulgaria take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), also known as The Centenarian, is a centre-left, social democratic political party in Bulgaria. The BSP is a member of the Socialist International, Party of European Socialists, and Progressive Alliance. Although founded in 1990 in its modern form, it traces its political heritage back to the founding of the BRSDP in 1891. It is also Bulgaria's largest party by membership numbers.
GERB, an acronym for Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, is a conservative populist political party which was the ruling party of Bulgaria during the periods between 2009–2013, 2016–2021 and 2025-present.
Yordanka Asenova Fandakova is a Bulgarian politician and former Mayor of Sofia. She was the first woman to hold this position. She was elected on 15 November 2009, after defeating the Bulgarian Socialist Party contender Georgi Kadiev. Fandakova is a member of the conservative GERB party.
Tsetska Tsacheva Dangovska is a Bulgarian politician and jurist. A member of centre-right conservative GERB political party, Dangovska has served as the Minister of Justice from 4 May 2017 to 5 April 2019. She had previously held the position of Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria on two occasions. She was the first woman to ever chair the National Assembly since its establishment in 1878.
Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 23 October 2011, with a runoff held on 30 October 2011. Incumbent president Georgi Parvanov was not eligible for re-election; the Constitution of Bulgaria limits a president to two terms. No candidate won outright in the first round, resulting in a runoff between the eventual winner, Rosen Plevneliev of GERB, and Ivaylo Kalfin of the Bulgarian Socialist Party.
Mihail Raykov Mikov is a Bulgarian politician who was Chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) from 2014 to 2016. He is a parliamentarian with six consecutive terms as a deputy in the National Assembly. His career in the legislature culminated in his election as Chairman of the 42nd National Assembly on May 21, 2013. Mikov was Minister of Interior from 24 April 2008 to 29 July 2009 in Sergei Stanishev's government. Currently he is the leader of the Parliamentary Group of BSP Left Bulgaria in the 43rd National Assembly, the coalition led by the socialist party. Mihail Mikov was elected as Chairman of the BSP on 27 July 2014, succeeding Sergei Stanishev. He won a run-off against outgoing Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev with a final tally of 377-333.
Local elections were held in all municipalities in Bulgaria on 25 October 2015 and on 1 November 2015. Voters elected municipal mayors, village mayors and members of municipal councils of 265 municipalities. They were held alongside a referendum on the electoral code.
Presidential elections were held in Bulgaria on 6 November 2016, alongside a referendum on changes to the electoral system and political party funding. The second round was held on 13 November 2016, resulting in the victory of Rumen Radev.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 26 March 2017. They had originally been scheduled for 2018 at the end of the four-year term of the National Assembly. However, following the resignation of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the failure of Bulgarian parties to form a government, early elections were called. Borisov resigned following the defeat of Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of his GERB party, in the November 2016 presidential elections. The official election campaign began on 24 February.
The first round of the local elections for mayors and municipal councilors on both the local and provincial level in Bulgaria were held on 27 October 2019. The second round of the election took place on 3 November, as per the decree signed by the President of Bulgaria. 6,227,901 Bulgarians were included on the voter lists and were eligible to vote, a 136,000 voter reduction compared to the 2015 local elections.
General elections were held in Bulgaria on 14 November 2021 to elect both the President and the National Assembly. They were the country's third parliamentary elections in 2021, with no party able to form a government after the elections in April and July. A second round of the presidential elections were held on 21 November 2021 as no candidate was able to receive a majority of the vote in the first round.
We Continue the Change, sometimes translated as Change Continues, is a centrist, anti-corruption political party and formerly an electoral alliance in Bulgaria led by Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev. It was founded ahead of the November 2021 election. The party was officially registered on 15 April.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 April 2023 to elect members of the National Assembly. These were initially scheduled to be held before November 2026; however, as no government was approved by the 48th Parliament, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev announced in January 2023 that he would call a snap election.
Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 9 June 2024, to elect members of the National Assembly. The election coincided with the European Parliament election on the same day.
The Bulgarian political crisis is a period of instability in Bulgaria, which has seen the country face seven parliamentary elections over four years: April 2021, July 2021, November 2021, October 2022, April 2023, June 2024 and October 2024.
The Denkov Government is the 102nd cabinet of Bulgaria. It was approved by the parliament on 6 June 2023, and is a majority coalition of GERB and PP–DB. Per the coalition agreement, it is set to be a rotation government, where PP–DB's Nikolai Denkov would start with the premiership, with GERB's Mariya Gabriel serving as deputy prime minister, and after nine months, the two would switch positions. Per the agreement, Denkov and his cabinet resigned on 6 March 2024 in preparation for Gabriel to form her cabinet, although the Denkov government stayed on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed.
Vanya Rumenova Grigorova is a Bulgarian economist, trade unionist, labour activist, and politician. She was an economic counselor to the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa from 2015 to 2023. She unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Sofia in 2023 and is currently a member of the Sofia City Council.
Vili Mladenov Lilkov is a Bulgarian physicist, politician and author. He is a long term Member of the Sofia City Council and unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Sofia twice in 2015 and 2023.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 27 October 2024, after all three attempts to form a government following the latest June 2024 elections failed. This was the country's sixth snap election since 2021. This series of snap elections is the result of a political crisis affecting the country.
| Parliamentary elections |
|
|---|---|
| Presidential elections | |
| Local elections | |
| European elections | |
| Eastern Rumelia elections | |
| Referendums | |
