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All 240 seats in the National Assembly 121 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Snap parliamentary elections will be held in Bulgaria in 27 October 2024, [1] [2] after all three attempts to form a government following the latest June 2024 elections failed. They will be the country's sixth snap elections since 2021.
Following several snap elections, the Bulgarian National Assembly had failed to put together a long-lasting government since 'anti-corruption' parties made a breakthrough in the April 2021 election. [3] [4] The 2023 election saw little change from 2022, with Boyko Borisov's centre-right GERB–SDS narrowly coming in first place, above the centrist PP–DB alliance. The far-right Revival (VAZ) and the populist There is Such a People (ITN) made gains, with the latter re-entering the Assembly after it failed to reach the electoral threshold in 2022. [5] [6]
On 22 May 2023, the PP- and GERB-led alliances agreed to form a government with a rotational premiership. Nikolai Denkov, PP's candidate, would be the Prime Minister for the first nine months of the government and Mariya Gabriel, the GERB candidate, would serve as deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister. After nine months, the two would switch positions. [7] After nine months, the switch failed to materialise with negotiations breaking down, [8] [9] [10] [11] and no government could be formed. Dimitar Glachev was appointed as caretaker prime minister, [12] and elections were scheduled for 9 June 2024. [13] [14]
The June 2024 elections, held at the same time as the European Parliament elections, had the lowest turnout (33%) since the end of communist rule in 1989. [3] It resulted in GERB–SDS winning most of the votes and 68 seats, with no party or alliance obtaining enough seats to form a majority in the National Assembly. [15] The new elected 50th Parliament replaced the 49th Parliament, [16] when all elected members were sworn in on 19 June. [17] Government formation attempts were given to GERB, PP–DB and There is Such a People (ITN), with the final attempt failing on 5 August. [18] [19] [20]
On 9 August, the Bulgarian President as a consequence instead appointed the Vice President of the Bulgarian National Audit Office, Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva, as the next caretaker prime minister. [21] Grancharova-Kozhareva was granted ten days to form a proposal for the next caretaker government to be appointed on 20 August, and the upcoming next parliamentary elections were scheduled for 20 October 2024. [22] Grancharova-Kozhareva made the controversial decision to propose that the incumbent minister of the interior, Kalin Stoyanov, should remain in his role, but this was opposed by president Rumen Radev. Radev rejected the government proposal, delaying the upcoming election. [23]
Following the rejection of Grancharova-Kozhareva, Radev re-appointed Dimitar Glavchev as the caretaker prime minister, [24] and his government proposal was sworn in on 27 August, and the elections were set for the 27 October. [25] [26]
One MP was expelled from the BSP by its national council on 18 June, before being sworn in. [27]
The Velichie parliamentary group comprised 13 MPs after the election. On 5 July, six MPs broke away from the group, dissolving it. [28]
A rift in Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) surrounding Delyan Peevski saw 17 MPs expelled and a further eight leave. [29]
As of the end of July 2024, the composition of the Assembly was as follows:
| Composition of the 50th Parliament (by the end of July 2024) [30] 
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The 240 members of the National Assembly are elected by open list, proportional representation from 31 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from four to nineteen seats. The electoral threshold is 4% for all parties or electoral coalitions, with seats allocated according to the largest remainder method using a Hare quota. [31] [32]
Below is the official list of parties and coalitions that registered lists for the Bulgarian Parliamentary elections as of 9th September. [33] [34]
On 27 August, the central leadership organisation of the DPS removed Delyan Peevski as chairman of the party, and seven MPs close to Peevski were expelled from the party. This move has been linked to Ahmed Dogan, MP and honorary chairman of the party. [35] [36] [37] Peevski called the move unconstitutional, [8] and gained control of the official party website. [38] This follows the rift in the party following the election, where the parliamentary group split. [29] The controversy surrounding Peevski has led to two groups emerging, [39] DPS – A New Beginning [40] and Democracy, Rights and Freedoms, [41] with both groups registering as electoral coalitions with the acronym DPS in order to get around the rules of the electoral commission. [6] [42] After DPS–Peevski was recognized to be the legitimate DPS by the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria, DPS~Dogan changed their name to "Alliance for Rights and Freedoms" (АПС instead of ДПС) and registered without listing DPS as a member of the alliance. [43]
The opinion poll results below were recalculated from the original data and exclude polls that chose "I will not vote" or "I am uncertain" options.
121 seats are needed for a parliamentary majority.
| Polling firm | Fieldwork date | Sample | GERB–SDS | DPS | PP–DB | Revival | BSP–OL | ITN | Veli. | Others | NOTA | Lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APS | DPS–NN | ||||||||||||
| 11 September 2024 | DPS splits into APS and DPS-NN | ||||||||||||
| Market Links | 14–23 August 2024 | 1,038 | 26.2 76 | 18.4 53 | 17.1 50 | 13.7 40 | 7.4 21 | 3.8 0 | 2.4 0 | 8.0 | 3.0 | 7.8 | |
| Gallup | 1–9 August 2024 | 802 | 25.2 74 | 14.5 42 | 15.2 44 | 14.2 41 | 7.3 21 | 6.2 18 | 3.6 0 | 13.4 [lower-alpha 1] | - | 10.0 | |
| Market Links | 20–28 July 2024 | 1,008 | 25.8 71 | 14.4 40 | 17.2 47 | 12.3 34 | 7.7 21 | 5.8 16 | 4.2 11 | 8.6 | 2.8 | 8.6 | |
| Market Links | 18–25 June 2024 | 1,014 | 24.4 66 | 18.3 50 | 16.2 44 | 13.8 38 | 5.3 14 | 5.4 15 | 5.0 13 | 6.7 | 5.8 | 6.1 | |
| June 2024 election results | 9 June 2024 | — | 24.0 68 | 16.6 47 | 13.9 39 | 13.4 38 | 6.9 19 | 5.8 16 | 4.5 13 | 12.3 | 2.9 | 7.4 | |
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 Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria is the supreme and basic law of the Republic of Bulgaria. The current constitution was adopted on 12 July 1991 by the 7th Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria, and defines the country as a unitary parliamentary republic. It has been amended six times.
An election of the Members of the European Parliament from Bulgaria to the European Parliament was held on 25 May 2014 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 2013–2014 Bulgarian protests against the Oresharski cabinet was a series of demonstrations that were held in Bulgaria, mainly in the capital Sofia, against the left-wing coalition cabinet of Oresharski. The demonstrations started on 28 May 2013, but actual large-scale protests did not emerge until 14 June.
While the trigger factor for the demonstrations was the controversial appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of DANS in June 2013, the public discontent stemmed from a variety of causes, to a large extent connected to the general nature of the BSP-MRF governing coalition and perceived legitimacy issues surrounding political processes in Bulgaria. They ended in July 2014 with the resignation of the Oresharski government.
Delyan Slavchev Peevski is a Bulgarian politician, oligarch, sanctioned by Magnitsky Act by UK and US for corruption, bribery and embezzlement also a former media mogul who has served as a Member of the National Assembly of Bulgaria since 2009. A member of the DPS party, he was elected for a short time in 2013 as the Director of the State Agency for National Security, which triggered long lasting national protests. Peevski was also unanimously elected in 2024 as the co-leader of the DPS party alongside Dzhevdet Chakarov.
Rumen Georgiev Radev is a Bulgarian politician and former major general who has been the president of Bulgaria since 22 January 2017.
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.
Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 4 April 2021 at the end of the term of National Assembly members elected in 2017. Parties in the governing coalition led by Boyko Borisov lost seats and no party leader was able to form a coalition government within the time limit. This triggered the July 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election.
There Is Such a People is a populist political party in Bulgaria established by Bulgarian singer, TV host, and politician Slavi Trifonov. Self-described as a "political product", the party is named after one of Trifonov's own musical albums.
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, two former caretaker ministers. 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.
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.
Dimitar Borisov Glavchev is a Bulgarian politician who is the current caretaker Prime Minister of Bulgaria. A political independent, he is also the Head of the Chamber of Audit, currently on unpaid leave. He was previously a member of the GERB party and served as Member of the National Assembly from 2009 to 2021. In 2017, he shortly served as Chairman of the National Assembly.
The First Glavchev Government was the 103rd cabinet of Bulgaria. It was appointed by President Rumen Radev on 9 April 2024, and sworn in the same day. The Glavchev Caretaker Cabinet was the first Caretaker Cabinet to be selected using the system created by the Constitutional Amendments of December 2023, and was the first Caretaker Cabinet to be sworn in in the presence of the National Assembly, rather than in the presence of the President.
Velichie is a Bulgarian political party founded in 2023, with strong connections to the Bulgarian business-person, Ivelin Mihaylov. The party's positions are strong in Vetrino Municipality and received parliamentary representation following the 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election.
The Alliance for Rights and Freedoms, often known as DPS–Dogan, is a Bulgarian political electoral coalition. It was formed prior to the October 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms – A New Beginning, often known as DPS–Peevski, is a Bulgarian political electoral coalition.
