| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 54.07% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Bulgaria |
---|
Presidency |
|
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. [1] Borisov resigned following the defeat of Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of his GERB party, in the November 2016 presidential elections. [2] [3] The official election campaign began on 24 February. [4]
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.
The National Assembly is the unicameral parliament and legislative body of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The Prime Minister of Bulgaria is the head of government of Bulgaria. He or she is the leader of a political coalition in the Bulgarian parliament – known as the National Assembly of Bulgaria – and the leader of the cabinet.
GERB won a plurality, with 95 of the 240 seats. Borisov was elected Prime Minister again after negotiating a governing coalition. [5]
The ninety-third Cabinet of Bulgaria took office on May 4, 2017. It is a coalition government that is chaired by Boyko Borisov. The government was formed after the Borisov's party, GERB, won the 2017 parliamentary election. However, GERB won only 95 out of 240 seats in the National Assembly and therefore needed to form a coalition in order to govern.
During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Borisov promised to resign if his party's candidate, Chairperson of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva, lost the election.
The Chairperson of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria presides over the Bulgarian Parliament. The chairperson's term coincides with the term of the assembly, and he or she is chosen by a vote during the opening session.
On 6 November 2016 Tsacheva finished second in the first round to BSP-backed Major General Rumen Radev, receiving only 22% of the popular vote compared to Radev's 25.4%. [6] Following the result, Borisov reiterated his promise to resign if his party's candidate lost the runoff election a week later. On November 13, 2016, she finished a distant second with only 36.2% of the popular vote compared to Radev's 59.4%. [7]
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, known as the Centenarian, is a social-democratic political party in Bulgaria and the successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists with a pro-EU stance, although it has taken some euroskeptic positions and called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia. BSP is also a member of the Socialist International. It is Bulgaria's largest political party by membership.
Rumen Georgiev Radev is a Bulgarian politician and former Major General who is the current President of Bulgaria since January 22, 2017. Radev previously served as Commander of the Bulgarian Air Force. He won the 2016 presidential election, as an independent candidate supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party, defeating GERB candidate Tsetska Tsacheva in the second round.
Borisov, staying true to his campaign promise, subsequently resigned on 14 November. [8] Two days later, the National Assembly voted 218–0 to accept it. [9]
The 240 members of the National Assembly are elected by closed list proportional representation from 31 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 4 to 16 seats. The electoral threshold is 4%. [10]
Closed list describes the variant of party-list proportional representation where voters can (effectively) only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters have at least some influence then it is called an open list.
Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.
Bulgarians abroad were able to vote in 371 voting sections in 70 foreign countries and territories. Some territories were excluded from this provision due to either security concerns (e.g. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria) or that very few resident Bulgarian nationals resident in the country had submitted requests to be enabled to vote (e.g. Ethiopia, Indonesia, Mongolia, North Korea and Pakistan). [11]
The deadline for political parties to register for the election was 8 February 2017. [12] Despite holding 15 seats in the Assembly, Reload Bulgaria chose not to compete in the election after being initially refused a name change, among other reasons. [13] The list of registered parties is below. [14]
Party or coalition | Leader | Ideology | European affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
GERB | Boyko Borisov | Conservatism, pro-Europeanism, populism | European People's Party | |
BSP for Bulgaria | Bulgarian Socialist Party | Korneliya Ninova | Socialism, Social democracy | Party of European Socialists |
Agrarian Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" | Spas Panchev | Agrarianism | ||
Communist Party of Bulgaria | Aleksandar Paunov | Marxism–Leninism | ||
New Dawn | Mincho Minchev | Left-wing nationalism | ||
Ecoglasnost | Green politics, Environmentalism | |||
Trakia | ||||
DPS | Mustafa Karadaya | Liberal democracy, Bulgarian Turk's minority rights and interests | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe | |
United Patriots | National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria | Valeri Simeonov | Bulgarian nationalism, national conservatism, Euroscepticism, populism | Movement for a Europe of Liberties and Democracy |
Attack | Volen Siderov | Bulgarian nationalism, Euroscepticism, populism | Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty | |
IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement | Krasimir Karakachanov | Bulgarian nationalism, national conservatism, populism | European Conservatives and Reformists | |
Average European Class | Georgi Manev | Bulgarian nationalism, national conservatism, populism | ||
Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense" | Nikolay Zahariev | Bulgarian nationalism | ||
Reformist Bloc | Bulgarian Agrarian National Union | Nikolay Nenchev | Agrarianism | |
Bulgarian new democracy | Borislav Velikov | Liberalism | ||
Bulgaria for Citizens Movement | Meglena Kuneva | Centrism | ||
Union of Democratic Forces | Bozhidar Lukarski | Christian democracy, pro-Europeanism, conservatism | European People's Party | |
People's Voice | Svetoslav Vitkov | Populism | ||
Bulgarian Democratic Forum | Zhaklin Toleva | Democracy | ||
Volya | Veselin Mareshki | Populism, Russophilia, Liberal democracy | ||
ABV – Movement 21 | Alternative for Bulgarian Revival | Konstantin Prodanov | Social democracy, Russophilia | |
Movement 21 | Tatyana Doncheva | |||
Movement "Yes, Bulgaria" | Yes, Bulgaria! | Hristo Ivanov | Anti-Corruption | |
The Greens | Zaritsa Georgieva, Vladislav Panev | Green politics, Environmentalism | European Green Party | |
DEOS | Viktor Lilov | Liberalism | ||
Coalition of dissatisfied | Bulgarian Social Democracy – EuroLeft | Dimitar Mitev | Social democracy | |
Christian Social Union | Christian democracy | |||
Party of the Greens | Vladimir Nikolov | Green politics, Environmentalism | European Green Party | |
WHO – Bulgarian Left and Green Party | Bulgarian Left | Hristofor Dochev, Margarita Mileva, Ivan Genov | Democratic socialism | Party of the European Left |
WHO – Competence, Responsibility and Truth | ||||
Green Party of Bulgaria | Green politics, Environmentalism | European Green Party | ||
New Republic | Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria | Radan Kanev | National conservatism, pro-Europeanism | European People's Party |
Union for Plovdiv | ||||
Bulgarian democratic community | ||||
Bulgarian democratic center | Krasimira Kovachka, Stefan Kenov | Conservatism | ||
Movement for Radical Change "Bulgarian Spring" | Velizar Enchev | Left-wing nationalism | ||
Bulgarian National Association | Georgi Georgiev | |||
Revival | Kostadin Kostadinov | Bulgarian nationalism | ||
National Republican Party | Mladen Mladenov | |||
Movement for an Equal Public Model | Iliya Iliev | Rights and interests of Gypsies | ||
Movement Forward Bulgaria | Zornitsa Todorova | |||
Association DOST | Democrats for Responsibility, Solidarity and Tolerance (DOST) | Lyutvi Mestan | Turkish minority rights and interests, Good relations with Turkey | |
People's Party "Freedom and Dignity" | Orhan Ismailov | Liberalism | ||
Percentages do not account for undecided voters. 'Date' column signifies the last date of the survey in question, not the date of publication.
Source | Date | Sample size | Margin of error | GERB | BSP | DPS | United Patriots | RB | Volya | Yes, Bulgaria! | ABV | Others / None | Lead |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 election | 5 October 2014 | 32.7% | 15.4% | 14.8% | 11.8% | 8.9% | – | – | 4.2% | 12.2% | |||
Trend | 17 January 2017 | 1,002 | ± 3.1% | 32.2% | 29.3% | 7.8% | 10.4% | 3.7% | 5.9% | 0.7% | 1.0% | 9.0% | 2.9% |
Alpha Research | 22 January 2017 | 1,024 | ± 3.0% | 32.6% | 28.8% | 7.8% | 10.7% | 3.8% | 4.4% | 2.3% | 1.4% | 8.2% | 3.8% |
Estat | 22 January 2017 | 1,000 | ± 3.1% | 36.1% | 27.5% | 6.0% | 7.0% | 2.4% | 8.4% | 0.9% | 1.9% | 9.8% | 8.6% |
Gallup | 30 January 2017 | 816 | ± 3.5% | 27.6% | 28.7% | 8.2% | 11.9% | 4.3% | 7.7% | 2.0% | 1.9% | 7.7% | 1.1% |
CAM | 7 February 2017 | 1,012 | ± 3.1% | 29.2% | 28.1% | 9.6% | 7.5% | 3.7% | 5.2% | 1.5% | 0.9% | 14.3% | 1.1% |
Trend | 9 February 2017 | 1,002 | ± 3.1% | 29.7% | 28.7% | 9.0% | 9.9% | 3.4% | 6.5% | 2.3% | 2.0% | 8.5% | 1.0% |
Sova Haris | 20 February 2017 | 1,003 | ± 3.0% | 31.3% | 31.6% | 6.4% | 10.3% | 6.3% | 7.2% | 0.5% | 3.0% | 3.4% | 0.3% |
Alpha Research | 23 February 2017 | 1,024 | ± 3.0% | 31.5% | 29.6% | 6.8% | 10.8% | 3.9% | 5.7% | 2.6% | 2.9% | 6.2% | 1.9% |
AFIS [ permanent dead link ] | 27 February 2017 | 1,200 | ± 3.0% | 28.2% | 30.5% | 6.7% | 8.5% | 4.5% | 5.1% | 1.3% | 3.3% | 12.0% | 2.3% |
Estat | 28 February 2017 | 1,000 | ± 3.1% | 29.5% | 30.2% | 6.4% | 8.6% | 3.9% | 11.8% | 2.3% | 1.5% | 5.8% | 0.7% |
Gallup | 5 March 2017 | 1,003 | ± 3.1% | 28.3% | 30.2% | 8.2% | 11.9% | 4.3% | 7.4% | 2.3% | 2.6% | 4.8% | 1.9% |
Institute of Modern Politics | 6 March 2017 | 827 | ± 3.1% | 29.1% | 29.0% | 7.3% | 9.5% | 3.5% | 5.8% | 1.7% | 4.1% | 10.0% | 0.1% |
Gallup | 15 March 2017 | 1,012 | ± 3.0% | 29.9% | 30.3% | 8.1% | 11.5% | 4.4% | 6.5% | 2.3% | 2.4% | 3.6% | 0.4% |
Estat | 15 March 2017 | 1,000 | ± 3.1% | 29.7% | 27.2% | 8.3% | 8.6% | 6.1% | 10.5% | 1.3% | 2.6% | 5.7% | 2.5% |
AFIS | 16 March 2017 | 1,010 | ± 3.0% | 31.2% | 31.5% | 8.5% | 9.9% | 4.4% | 5.3% | 1.1% | 4.1% | 4.1% | 0.3% |
Trend | 16 March 2017 | 1,004 | ± 3.1% | 29.8% | 27.9% | 8.7% | 10.2% | 3.8% | 7.3% | 2.1% | 2.6% | 7.6% | 1.9% |
CAM | 16 March 2017 | 1,012 | ± 3.1% | 29.6% | 29.0% | 10.8% | 10.0% | 3.5% | 6.2% | 1.9% | 1.5% | 7.5% | 0.6% |
Mediana | 20 March 2017 | 1,010 | ± 3.0% | 26.6% | 27.7% | 11.1% | 10.2% | 5.1% | 9.6% | 1.1% | 4.0% | 4.6% | 1.1% |
Institute of Modern Politics | 20 March 2017 | 805 | ± 3.1% | 28.5% | 29.0% | 9.1% | 10.1% | 4.0% | 9.6% | 2.0% | 4.5% | 3.2% | 0.5% |
Gallup | 21 March 2017 | 1,012 | ± 3.0% | 27.1% | 26.5% | 9.7% | 12.3% | 3.8% | 8.2% | 2.4% | 2.6% | 7.4% | 0.6% |
Alpha Research | 22 March 2017 | 1,033 | ± 3.0% | 31.7% | 29.1% | 8.4% | 8.9% | 4.0% | 6.8% | 2.5% | 2.9% | 5.7% | 2.6% |
Exacta | 22 March 2017 | 1,000 | ± 3.0% | 31.2% | 28.1% | 7.6% | 10.5% | 4.0% | 6.5% | 1.5% | 2.6% | 8.0% | 3.1% |
Five parties met the 4% threshold required to gain seats. GERB maintained their position as the largest party.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
GERB | 1,147,292 | 32.65 | 95 | +11 |
BSP for Bulgaria | 955,490 | 27.19 | 80 | +41 |
United Patriots | 318,513 | 9.07 | 27 | –3 |
Movement for Rights and Freedoms | 315,976 | 8.99 | 26 | −12 |
Volya | 145,637 | 4.15 | 12 | New |
Reformist Bloc | 107,407 | 3.06 | 0 | −23 |
Yes, Bulgaria! | 101,177 | 2.88 | 0 | 0 |
Association DOST | 100,479 | 2.86 | 0 | New |
New Republic | 86,984 | 2.48 | 0 | New |
ABV–Movement 21 | 54,412 | 1.55 | 0 | −11 |
Revival | 37,896 | 1.08 | 0 | New |
Party of the Greens | 10,159 | 0.29 | 0 | 0 |
Bulgarian Spring | 9,232 | 0.26 | 0 | New |
Forward Bulgaria Movement | 6,644 | 0.19 | 0 | New |
Coalition of the Dissatisfied | 5,945 | 0.17 | 0 | New |
Movement for an Equal Public Model | 4,989 | 0.14 | 0 | New |
Bulgarian National Association | 3,921 | 0.11 | 0 | New |
Bulgarian Democratic Centre | 3,130 | 0.09 | 0 | New |
WHO–BL–ZP | 2,916 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 |
National Republican Party | 2,325 | 0.07 | 0 | New |
Independents | 5,116 | 0.15 | 0 | 0 |
None of the above | 87,850 | 2.50 | – | – |
Invalid/blank votes | 169,009 | – | – | – |
Total | 3,682,499 | 100 | 240 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 6,838,235 | 53.85 | – | – |
Source: CIK |
Boyko Borisov appeared set to resume his tenure as Prime Minister, possibly with a coalition with the United Patriots, [15] and ultimately formed the Third Borisov Government with the United Patriots.
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.
Bulgaria elected its members of the European Parliament in a by-election on 20 May 2007. It was the country's first European election, having joined the Union on 1 January of that year. The country still had 18 MEPs, no change from before the election. Until Bulgaria could hold these elections, the country was represented by MEPs appointed by the National Assembly.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 5 July 2009. With 40% of the vote, the decisive winner of the elections was the established in 2006 personalistic party of Boyko Borisov - GERB. The Socialist Party, in power before the election, was in second place, with around 18%. Оnce-ruling National Movement Simeon II did not cross the 4% threshold and won no seats. The turnout was 60.2%, one of the lowest ever. Following the election, GERB leader Boyko Borisov became Prime Minister. Just like all the previous parliamentary elections since the fall of communism, the government was not re-elected.
Tsetska Tsacheva Dangovska is a Bulgarian jurist and GERB politician who is the current Minister of Justice of Bulgaria as part of the Third Borisov Government, having assumed office on 4 May 2017. She had previously held the position of Chairwoman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria on two occasions. Tsetska Tsacheva is the first woman to ever chair the National Assembly of Bulgaria since its establishment in 1878.
Rosen Asenov Plevneliev is a Bulgarian politician who was the 4th President of Bulgaria from January 2012 to January 2017. He was the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works from July 2009 to September 2011 as part of the cabinet of Boyko Borisov. In October 2011, Plevneliev was elected as President in a second round of voting; he was inaugurated on 18 January 2012.
Iliana Malinova Iotova is a Bulgarian politician who has served as Vice President of Bulgaria since 2017. She was the running mate of Rumen Radev, who defeated GERB nominee Tsetska Tsacheva in the second round of the 2016 presidential election. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 until her resignation on 16 January 2017. In the EP she sat on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and was a substitute for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. She also participated in the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. She speaks Bulgarian, French and English.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 12 May 2013, two months ahead of schedule. Protests had forced the resignation of the GERB government in February, leading to the election being moved up.
The European Parliament election of 2014 in Bulgaria was held on 25 May 2014 to elect the Members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria to the European Parliament as part of the larger European Parliament election. After a decision by the European Council in 2013, Bulgaria was allocated 17 seats in the European Parliament for the Eighth European Parliament.
The Oresharski Government was the eighty-ninth cabinet of Bulgaria which took office on 29 May 2013. The government, led by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, is one of technocrats created following the 2013 election. The cabinet was dissolved on 6 August 2014 to make way for a caretaker government that would lead Bulgaria through early elections in October of the same year.
Boyko Metodiev Borisov is a Bulgarian politician who has been serving as the 50th Prime Minister of Bulgaria since 4 May 2017. He had previously held the post of Prime Minister on two separate occasions, from 2009 until 2013 and from 2014 until January 2017. He was also the Mayor of Sofia from 2005 to 2009.
A referendum on introducing electronic voting was held in Bulgaria on 25 October 2015 alongside local elections. Although the referendum resulted was approved by a wide margin, turnout was far below the required threshold to make its result binding.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 5 October 2014 to elect the 43rd National Assembly. GERB remained the largest party, winning 84 of the 240 seats with around a third of the vote. A total of eight parties won seats, the first time since the beginning of democratic elections in 1990 that more than seven parties entered parliament. Boyko Borisov then became prime minister as head of a coalition with the Reformist Bloc and with outside support from the Patriotic Front and the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival.
The Alternative for Bulgarian Revival is a centre-left political party in Bulgaria. The party's initials in Bulgarian, 'АБВ', are the first three letters of the Cyrillic alphabet, equivalent to 'ABC'.
The ninety-first Cabinet of Bulgaria took office on November 7, 2014. It is a coalition government chaired by Boyko Borisov. The government was formed after the Borisov's party, GERB, won the 2014 parliamentary election. As GERB won 84 out of the 240 seats in the National Assembly, they were compelled to form a coalition to legally govern.
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.
Traycho Dimitrov Traykov is a Bulgarian politician. He was a Bulgarian Minister of Economy and Energy from 2009 to 2012. In February 2012 he launched an examination of dams in the south of the country after malfunction complaints. In March 2012 it was reported that he had been dismissed from his position allegedly for delaying work on energy projects; Bulgarian-language daily Bulgaria Dnes alleges that it was due to Belene Nuclear Power Plant specifically, a project which was terminated that month. Traykov himself "attributed the dismissal to his firm position in negotiations with Russia and his demands that Russia should cut the construction cost of the Belene plant, reduce gas prices by as much as 15 percent in a new supply contract and increase returns from the South Stream pipeline above 8 percent." He was succeeded by his former deputy, Delyan Dobrev.
Yes, Bulgaria!, is a Bulgarian political party, founded in January 2017 by former Minister of Justice Hristo Ivanov.
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Bulgaria in 2021, although they may be held earlier if the office of President become vacated as a result of death, resignation or removal from office. The incumbent president, Rumen Radev, is eligible for re-election.