Bulgaria elects a head of state—the president—and a legislature on a national level. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people directly. 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 usually no party receives a required majority and parties have to collaborate to form governments, generally via confidence and supply or coalition agreements.
Parliamentary elections
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.
Historical turnout
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
!colspan=19|Turnout
|-
!1986
!1990
!1991
!1994
!1997
!2001
!2005
!2009
!2013
!2014
!2017
!April 2021
!July 2021
!Nov 2021
!2022
!2023
!June 2024
!October 2024
!2026
|-
||99.92%||90.78%||83.87%||75.23%||58.87%||66.63%||55.76%||60.64%||52.47%||49.51%||52.57%||49.1%||40.39%||38.64%||39.30%||40.63%||33.4%||38.94%||50.70%
|}
Most recent election
Presidential elections
Presidential elections have been held since 1992. From 1996 onwards, presidential elections have been held every five years.
Most recent election
European Parliament elections
Bulgaria has participated in every European Parliament elections since 2007, as its accession to the European Union in that same year. GERB has won every EU election since 2007, as of 2024.
European Parliament elections in Bulgaria
- 2007 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
- 2009 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
- 2014 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
- 2019 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
- 2024 European Parliament election in Bulgaria
Referendums
Since 1991, referendums are required to have a turnout of at least 60% in order to be considered valid. Any referendum which has a turnout of at least 20% is required to be debated in the National Assembly. Under current Bulgarian law a referendum is mandatory if a petition receives at least five hundred thousand signatures.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
! rowspan="2" |Question
! colspan="2" |For
! colspan="2" |Against
! colspan="2" |None of the above
! rowspan="2" |Invalid/
blank
! rowspan="2" |Total
votes
! rowspan="2" |Registered
voters
! rowspan="2" |Turnout
! rowspan="2" |Outcome
! rowspan="2" |Source
|-
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
|-
! colspan="13" |19 November 1922
|-
| align="left" |War criminal prosecutions
|647,313
|74.33
|223,584
|25.67
|
|
|57,879
|928,776
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="13" |8 September 1946
|-
| align="left" |Adopting a Republic
|3,833,183
|95.63
|175,231
|4.37
|
|
|124,507
|4,132,921
|4,509,354
|91.65
|
|
|-
! colspan="13" |16 May 1971
|-
| align="left" |Approval of new constitution
|6,135,218
|99.7
|15,477
|0.3
|
|
|5,533
|6,156,228
|6,174,635
|99.7
|
|
|-
! colspan="13" |27 January 2013
|-
| align="left" |Nuclear power plant
|851,757
|61.49
|533,526
|38.51
|
|
|19,903
|1,405,186
|6,952,183
|20.21
|
|
|-
! colspan="13" |25 October 2015
|-
| align="left" |Electronic voting
|1,883,411
|72.79
|704,182
|27.21
|
|
|122,339
|2,709,932
|6,766,619
|40.05
|
|
|-
! colspan="13" |6 November 2016
|-
| align="left" |Two-round system for parliamentary elections
|2,509,864
|73.80
|560,024
|16.47
|330,928
|9.73
|87,668
|3,488,484
| rowspan="3" |6,865,086
| rowspan="3" |50.81||
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| align="left" |Compulsory voting
|2,158,929
|63.48
|905,691
|26.63
|336,180
|9.89
|87,668
|3,488,468||
|-
| align="left" |Political funding
|2,516,791
|74.02
|523,759
|15.40
|359,778
|10.58
|87,668
|3,487,996||
|}
Regional referendums
Several regional referendums have been held as well.
Local elections
Mayors and municipal councilors are elected across the country every four years. The elections to Bulgaria's municipal councils are conducted via proportional representation with an open list preferential voting system.
Most recent elections
See also
- Government of Bulgaria
- Constitution of Bulgaria
References
External links
- Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009
- 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
- Bulgarian News Agency
- Blog in English about the Bulgarian elections in 2009
- NSD: European Election Database - Bulgaria publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2009