Bulgarian parliamentary election, 1949

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Bulgarian parliamentary election, 1949
Flag of Bulgaria.svg
  1946 18 December 1949 1953  

400 seats to the Grand National Assembly
Turnout 100%

  First party
  V.kolarov.jpg
Leader Vasil Kolarov
Party BCP
Alliance Fatherland Front
Seats won 241
Popular vote 4,588,996
Percentage 100%

PM before election

Vasil Kolarov
Fatherland Front

Elected PM

Vasil Kolarov
Fatherland Front

Coat of arms of Bulgaria.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Bulgaria

Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 18 December 1949. [1] They were the first legislative elections held under undisguised Communist rule. With all meaningful opposition having been destroyed, [2] voters were presented with a single list from the Fatherland Front, dominated by the Bulgarian Communist Party. According to official figures, almost 4.7 million people turned out to vote and only 980 of them voted against the list, while another 109,963 ballots were invalid or blank. Voter turnout was reportedly 98.9 percent. [3]

Bulgaria country in Southeast Europe

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The capital and largest city is Sofia; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 16th-largest country.

Peoples Republic of Bulgaria 1946-1990 republic in Southeastern Europe

The People's Republic of Bulgaria was the official name of Bulgaria, when it was a socialist republic.

Fatherland Front (Bulgaria) political organization in Bulgaria

The Fatherland Front (OF) [Otečestven Front] was originally a Bulgarian political resistance movement during World War II. The Zveno movement, the communist Bulgarian Workers Party, a wing of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union and the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party, were all part of the OF. The constituent groups of the OF had widely contrasting ideologies and had only united in face of the pro-German, militarist dictatorship in Bulgaria. Still, initially the members of the OF worked together, without a single dominating group. Professional associations and unions could be members of the front, whilst still maintaining their organisational independence. However, the Bulgarian Communist Party began to dominate soon. In 1944, after the Soviet Union had declared war on Bulgaria, the OF committed a coup d'état and they declared war on Germany and the other Axis nations. The OF government, headed by Kimon Georgiev (Zveno), immediately signed a ceasefire treaty with the Soviet Union.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats
Fatherland Front 4,588,996100241
Against9800.0
Invalid/blank votes109,963
Total4,699,939100241
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p368 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Communism. Bulgaria: a country study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division, 1989.
  3. Nohlen & Stöver, p381