Bulgarian Elections Explained

Bulgaria’s “new” caretaker cabinet takes oath before October 27 early elections

The second Dimitar Glavchev caretaker cabinet took the oath of office in the National Assembly on August 27, hours after President Roumen Radev signed the decree naming October 27 as the date of Bulgaria’s next early parliamentary elections.

The special sitting of the National Assembly for the swearing-in, called during Parliament’s recess, lasted just eight minutes, including the oath-taking and playing of the Bulgarian and European Union anthems.

Glavchev will head an interim government with just three personnel changes compared with the one that took office in April and that subsequently underwent minor changes.

Controversial figure Kalin Stoyanov is out as caretaker Interior Minister, but his successor in that portfolio, national police chief Atanas Ilkov, has been described by some parliamentary groups as similarly serving Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) co-leader Delyan Peevski.

Peevski said last week that were Stoyanov excluded from the next caretaker cabinet, he would place him on his list of parliamentary election candidates.

The other changes in the second Glavchev cabinet are deputy foreign minister Ivan Kondov taking over the Foreign Minister portfolio, until now held by Glavchev, and Transport Ministry legal department head Krassimira Stoyanova taking over the Transport Minister portfolio from Georgi Gvozdeikov.

The October 27 elections will be the seventh time in just more than three years that Bulgarians elect a legislature. Only two of those elections produced an elected government, neither of which served a full term in office.

Bulgaria Sets October 20th for 7th Early Parliamentarian Elections in 3 Years

President Rumen Radev has appointed Goritsa Grancharova-Kozhareva as the new acting Prime Minister and expects her to propose a caretaker government by August 19. During a meeting at the presidential residence on Dondukov 2, Radev outlined the timeline and expectations for the formation of the new government.

Radev indicated that while the Constitution does not specify a strict deadline, October 20 is considered the most suitable date for the upcoming early parliamentary elections. He instructed Grancharova-Kozhareva to present a proposed government structure and composition by August 19 to ensure compliance with legal requirements.

Government Elections in Bulgaria (2005-2024):

2005 Parliamentary Elections
2006 Presidential Elections
2007 Municipal Elections
2009 Parliamentary Elections
2009 European Parliament elections
2011 Presidential Elections
2011 Local Elections
2013 Early parliamentary elections
2014 Early Parliamentary Elections
2015 Municipal Elections
2016 Presidential election
2017 Parliamentary elections
2019 European Parliament election (23-26 May)
2019 Bulgarian local elections
2019 Municipal Elections
2021 April National Parliament election
2021 Second National Parliament election
2021 Third National Parliament and Presidential elections
2022 October elections for 48th National Assembly after the fall of a four-party coalition in June 2022.
2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election
2023 Second Bulgarian parliamentary election for the year
2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election
2024 Second Bulgarian parliamentary election for the year

Turnout in Bulgaria’s October Elections only 44%

Turnout in Bulgaria’s 29 October local elections was 44.94, in line with preliminary forecasts by sociologists. More than 2 713 000 voters went to the polls out of a total of just over 6 038 000 on the electoral rolls. This can be seen from the data published on the Central Election Commission website. In the previous local elections in 2019, the turnout in the first round was higher – 49.76%. Ballot voting will be held again on November 5, 2023. This is the 5th postpandemic elections in Bulgaria  and 20th since 2005.

Government Elections in Bulgaria (2005-2022):

2005 Parliamentary Elections
2006 Presidential Elections
2007 Municipal Elections
2009 Parliamentary Elections
2009 European Parliament elections
2011 Presidential Elections
2011 Local Elections
2013 Early parliamentary elections
2014 Early Parliamentary Elections
2015 Municipal Elections
2016 Presidential election
2017 Parliamentary elections
2019 European Parliament election (23-26 May)
2019 Bulgarian local elections
2019 Municipal Elections
2021 April National Parliament election
2021 Second National Parliament election
2021 Third National Parliament and Presidential elections
2022 October elections for 48th National Assembly after the fall of a four-party coalition in June 2022.

Bulgaria’s President set a Date for this year’s Elections

Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev signed a decree today scheduling the elections for mayors and municipal councilors for October 29.

The head of state has determined the date after a working meeting with representatives of the leadership of the Central Election Commission (CEc).

The conversation discussed the specifics of the local vote and the upcoming work on the organization of the election process. The CEC has informed the president of the technical and logistical features that the commission must comply with for the local elections and its readiness for their holding.

Here you can read about the results of a study that determined for who will one-third of Sofia residents will vote as their future mayor.

 

5th postpandemic elections in Bulgaria for an expert-government

• exPM Borissov wins (26.51%) once again with a mere 1.5% lead
• CHANGE political formation follows closely with 24.54%
• None have enough to form a majority government and will be forced to seek political coalition
• Merely 1/3 of Bulgaria’s population voted, tired of now 5 consecutive elections since 2021 without a wining ruling party or actual government formed as following:
  • 2021 April National Parliament election
  • 2021 Second National Parliament election
  • 2021 Third National Parliament and Presidential elections
  • 2022 October elections for 48th National Assembly after the fall of a four-party coalition in June 2022.
  • 2023 Fifth National Parliament elections

CEC data as of 5:55 p.m. with 100% of sectional protocols processed in the Regional Election Commissions show that six political formations will enter the 49th National Assembly: GERB – SDS, WCC-DB, “Vazrazhdane”, DPS, BSP and ” There Is Such a People”.

GERB – SDS have 26.51%, or with a 1.93% lead over WCC-DP, which received 24.54% of the votes. The difference between the two leading coalitions is 49,769 votes.

The GERB-SDS coalition improved its result and received 34,734 votes more than in October last year. Now there are 669,361 people who voted for them.

Nearly 2 percent lag behind the first and second according to the results are “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” (WCC-DB). They gathered the support of 619,592 voters, but compared to October last year, a drop of nearly 74,000 votes was reported, as the two formations then gathered the total support of 692,000 voters. If we add the percentages of the two formations from October, they are 27.6 percent, but already as a coalition they achieve a 3 percent lower result.

The third political force in yesterday’s elections is the “Vazrazhdane” (Revival) party with 14.15%, followed by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) with 13.72% and the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) – with 8.94%.

“There Is Such a People” (TISP) also entered the new parliament, with the party receiving 4.11% of the vote. The trend of the “Vazrazhdane” party, which from the fourth to the third political force, is upward. Now, compared to October, it adds another 102,000 votes to its result, with 357,167 people voting for the formation yesterday.

The results for DPS, compared now and from last year, mark a drop of almost 2 thousand, and the party from third is now fourth. In October, more than 344,000 people voted for DPS, and 346,437 did so a day ago.

For BSP – fifth in terms of results, the support is also falling – from 233 thousand in October to 225 thousand now, which is minus 7 thousand votes.

103,641 voters voted for the sixth formation, which with a high degree of probability falls into the 49th National Assembly – “There Is Such a People”, and in the previous elections, when Trifonov’s party failed to cross the 4 percent barrier, the support was 96 thousand.

The “Bulgarian Rise” party – had 3.08% and the coalition “Levitsata!” (The Left) remain below the 4 percent barrier. – with 2.24%.

Central Election Commission data with processed 100% protocols in the Regional Election Committees of the country

34 Years after Communism…

34 years in 60 seconds at the red-light…

I’m driving slowly in the dark and raining streets of my home town passing through clouds of car smoke. The gypsy ghetto in the outskirts of town is covered with the fog of fires made out of old tires burning in the yards. And the loud music adds that grotesque and gothic nuance to the whole picture with poorly clothed children dancing around the burnings.

The first red light stops me at the entrance to the “more civilized” part of the city. The bright counter right next to it slowly moves through the long 60 seconds while tiredly walking people pass through the intersection to go home and escape the cold rain. The street ahead of me is already covered with dirt and thickening layer of sleet.

This is how I remember Bulgaria of my youth and it seems like nothing has changed in the past 25 years.

The newly elected government just announced its coalition cabinet – next to a dozen like it that had failed in the past two decades. The gas price is holding firmly at $6/gal. and the price of electricity just increased by 10%, while the harsh winter is already knocking at the doors of poor Bulgarian households. A major bank is in collapse threatening to take down the national banking system and create a new crisis much like in Greece. These are the same factors that caused Bulgaria’s major inflation in 1993 and then hyperinflation in 1996-97.

What’s next? Another winter and again a hard one!

Ex-secret police agents are in all three of the coalition parties forming the current government. The ultra nationalistic party called “ATTACK” and the Muslim ethnic minorities party DPS are out for now, but awaiting their move as opposition in the future parliament. At the same time, the new-old prime minister (now in his second term) is already calling for yet another early parliamentarian election in the summer. This is only months after the previous elections in October, 2014 and two years after the ones before them on May 2013.

Every Bulgarian government in the past 25 years has focused on two rather mechanical goals: cardinal socio-economical reforms and battle against communism. The latter is simply unachievable without deep reformative change within the Bulgarian post-communist mentality. The purpose of any reform should be to do exactly that. Instead, what is always changing is the outwardness of the country. The change is only mechanical, but never organic within the country’s heart.

Bulgaria’s mechanical reforms in the past quarter of a century have proven to be only conditional, but never improving the conditions of living. The wellbeing of the individual and the pursuit of happiness, thou much spoken about, are never reached for they never start with the desire to change within the person. For this reason, millions of Bulgarians and their children today work abroad, pursuing another life for another generation.

The stop light in front of me turns green bidding the question where to go next. Every Bulgarian today must make a choice! Or we’ll be still here at the red light in another 25 years from now…

Elections in Bulgaria at Halt Once Again…

This is the third parliamentary snap election since 2021, an unprecedented situation in Bulgarian history, the previous ones being the April, July, and November 2021 elections. We are back at the red light like in 2014 at the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall…

Government Elections in Bulgaria (2005-2022):

2005 Parliamentary Elections
2006 Presidential Elections
2007 Municipal Elections
2009 Parliamentary Elections
2009 European Parliament elections
2011 Presidential Elections
2011 Local Elections
2013 Early parliamentary elections
2014 Early Parliamentary Elections
2015 Municipal Elections
2016 Presidential election
2017 Parliamentary elections
2019 European Parliament election (23-26 May)
2019 Bulgarian local elections
2019 Municipal Elections
2021 April National Parliament election
2021 Second National Parliament election
2021 Third National Parliament and Presidential elections
2022 October elections for 48th National Assembly after the fall of a four-party coalition in June 2022.

25 (now 33) Years after Communism…

25 years in 60 seconds at the red-light…

I’m driving slowly in the dark and raining streets of my home town passing through clouds of car smoke. The gypsy ghetto in the outskirts of town is covered with the fog of fires made out of old tires burning in the yards. And the loud music adds that grotesque and gothic nuance to the whole picture with poorly clothed children dancing around the burnings.

The first red light stops me at the entrance to the “more civilized” part of the city. The bright counter right next to it slowly moves through the long 60 seconds while tiredly walking people pass through the intersection to go home and escape the cold rain. The street ahead of me is already covered with dirt and thickening layer of sleet.

This is how I remember Bulgaria of my youth and it seems like nothing has changed in the past 25 years.

The newly elected government just announced its coalition cabinet – next to a dozen like it that had failed in the past two decades. The gas price is holding firmly at $6/gal. and the price of electricity just increased by 10%, while the harsh winter is already knocking at the doors of poor Bulgarian households. A major bank is in collapse threatening to take down the national banking system and create a new crisis much like in Greece. These are the same factors that caused Bulgaria’s major inflation in 1993 and then hyperinflation in 1996-97.

What’s next? Another winter and again a hard one!

Ex-secret police agents are in all three of the coalition parties forming the current government. The ultra nationalistic party called “ATTACK” and the Muslim ethnic minorities party DPS are out for now, but awaiting their move as opposition in the future parliament. At the same time, the new-old prime minister (now in his second term) is already calling for yet another early parliamentarian election in the summer. This is only months after the previous elections in October, 2014 and two years after the ones before them on May 2013.

Every Bulgarian government in the past 25 years has focused on two rather mechanical goals: cardinal socio-economical reforms and battle against communism. The latter is simply unachievable without deep reformative change within the Bulgarian post-communist mentality. The purpose of any reform should be to do exactly that. Instead, what is always changing is the outwardness of the country. The change is only mechanical, but never organic within the country’s heart.

Bulgaria’s mechanical reforms in the past quarter of a century have proven to be only conditional, but never improving the conditions of living. The wellbeing of the individual and the pursuit of happiness, thou much spoken about, are never reached for they never start with the desire to change within the person. For this reason, millions of Bulgarians and their children today work abroad, pursuing another life for another generation.

The stop light in front of me turns green bidding the question where to go next. Every Bulgarian today must make a choice! Or we’ll be still here at the red light in another 25 years from now…

NEW Bulgarian National Elections Ineffective Once Again

Elections in Bulgaria: Can a Government be Formed? Lowest Voter Activity in 32 years

With 99.98% processed protocols in the CEC, 7 parties enter the next parliament. Here are the data as of 12.00 p.m. on October 3:

1. GERB-SDS – 634,525 votes – 25.33%
2. “We Continue the Change” – 505,914 votes – 20.20%
3. Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) – 344,605 votes – 13.76%
4. “Vazrazhdane” – 254,725 votes – 10.17%
5. Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) – 232,932 votes – 9.30%
6. “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB) – 186,474 votes – 7.44%
7. “Bulgarian Rise” – 115,837 votes – 4.62%

7 political parties elected with the following allocation of seats in the 48th National Assembly:

1. GERB: 67
2. “We Continue the Change”: 53
3. Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS): 36
4. “Vazrazhdane” (Revival): 27
5. Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP): 25
6. “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB): 20
7. “Bulgarian Rise”: 12

“Vazrazhdane” doubled its votes compared to the November 14, 2021 election, while the former ruling party, “We Continue the Change”, lost a quarter of the support it received then.

With “There Is Such a People”, the drop is about 60 percent of the vote for the party in November. GERB, DPS and “Democratic Bulgaria” are growing, although not drastically, while BSP continues the trend of shrinking its support.

175,338 Bulgarian citizens voted abroad. “We Continue the Change” and “Democratic Bulgaria” lost their electoral positions among Bulgarians abroad at the expense of the pro-Russian formation “Vazrazhdane”, which added more than 10 thousand votes to its result from November.

Boyko Borissov’s GERB is the first political force. It is followed by Kiril Petkov’s “We Continue the Change” with a difference of about 6-7 percent. The third position is for the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS). The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) is fourth. After them is the right-wing, pro-Russian “Vazrazhdane” (Revival), whose leader Kostadin Kostadinov insisted that the party will be #1 in these elections. Sixth is “Democratic Bulgaria” (DB).

Bulgaria: GERB offers Negotiations to Everyone – Borissov doesn’t want to be PM or MP

“I neither want to be prime minister, nor deputy, nor minister”, GERB leader Boyko Borissov commented at a party briefing whether he is inclined not to be prime minister in the next cabinet. “The results of the elections are expected, but they give a clearer picture of the state of the party at the moment”, said Borisov.

Tomislav Donchev thanked all the people who supported GERB-SDS. “The moment suggests a search for unity, for agreement. Out of 31, GERB-SDS won in 24 regions, DPS in 5, ‘We Continue the Change’ – in 2. The map is blue, but that is not the most important thing”, commented Donchev.

The data by municipalities are also eloquent – in 265 Bulgarian municipalities, GERB wins in 174, he added. He reported that the party had returned their support of over 38,000 people, showing that they were following the right direction in an extremely aggressive environment.

Bulgaria: Explosions at “Arsenal” Weapons Factory in Kazanlak – Casualties reported

The Regional Office for Fire Safety and Population Protection reports on an incident at the “Arsenal” plant in Kazanlak, Bulgaria. The signal was received at 11:04 a.m.

Two fire trucks from Kazanlak were sent to the scene, including departmental fire brigades and ambulances. According to unofficial information, there are two casualties, and eyewitnesses report that there was an extremely loud explosion and a dark cloud over the area.

*Update: 3 deaths reported, 3 injured people are transported to the hospital in Kazanlak.

The Labor Inspectorate confirmed the information about the incident, they also reported on an injured woman who was transported to the hospital in Stara Zagora.

 

Bulgaria calls October 2 snap elections amidst caretaker government

SOFIA, Aug 1 (Reuters) – Bulgarian President Rumen Radev set Oct. 2 as the date for the country’s fourth parliamentary election in less than two years on Monday, after the collapse in June of reformist Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s coalition government. Radev also appointed former labour minister Galab Donev to lead a caretaker government to serve from Aug. 2 until a new government is formed after the election. Radev will outline the priorities of the new government on Tuesday, his office said in a statement.

The European Union country faces surging inflation, natural gas supply doubts and other impacts from the war in Ukraine. The appointment of Donev, 55, a presidential adviser on social policies, is seen as a sign that shielding households from soaring energy and food prices will be a priority for the caretaker administration. This could involve efforts to renew Russian gas imports as well as mending diplomatic relations with Moscow strained under Petkov’s government.

Bulgaria once again on the verge of early elections

After the first successful vote of no confidence in Bulgarian history has become a reality, the county is now governed by a cabinet in resignation and a parliament torn apart by inter-party attacks. The National Assembly and the government can remain operational but attention must be paid to temporary majorities formed in plenary hall. However, adopting the budget update with its anti-inflation measures, which a large part of the Bulgarian population depends on, is in question, political analysts warn.

The vote is now over, but many questions remain unanswered.

“None of us who often commented on the objective difficulties, the contradictions in the coalition and the clash with the opposition could imagine that this government would be toppled so easily and so quickly,” sociologist Boryana Dimitrova, head of Alpha Research, said in an interview with BNR. “The economic stalemate, inflation and tense geopolitical state of affairs have led to a situation when no one is particularly eager to take power. Analysts have already pointed out that the lack of a political force that feels ready to take power prolongs the life of this government.”

After the cabinet was brought down, it turned out that solving the political puzzle is not so easy. The inability of the National Assembly to make decisions after the withdrawal of one of the coalition partners – “There is Such a People” is more than obvious and this will lead to early elections, analysts say.

Despite the difficult situation, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said that “We Continue the Change” party, which is the largest political force in parliament, would accept the mandate of President Rumen Radev to form a government and would try to find 121 independent MPs. However, Deputy Prime Minister Assen Vassilev is pessimistic and forecasts that the country is heading towards new elections in the autumn.

“Seeking support from several MPs while it is unknown what mechanism can be used for them to join in and how sustainable their vote would be is either a tale for naive people or a dangerous political delusion,” Boryana Dimitrova says.

In this situation, the speed with which the parliamentary roulette will be turned is important. This depends on the Bulgarian President and there are constitutional deadlines, but the process can be faster or slower enough to update the budget – an extremely serious topic for many Bulgarians. The update envisages pension hike from 1 July, tax cuts for working families with children, support for the business to deal with high energy prices. Minister of Social Affairs Georgi Gyokov called on MPs to “show some common sense” and to support the social and anti-inflationary measures specified in the update.

“There is a lot of appetite towards the budget and discussions are heated,” sociologist Boryana Dimitrova says. “On the one hand we are told that various demands can be met, while others claim that this is a time bomb that would explode next year. It is difficult to find the truth, but in any case we need a serious conversation and a purposeful budget update. Whether this will happen and what proposals will be made between the first and second reading of the document in the National Assembly is an important political question that will give us signals whether we can think about future coalitions or overlap of opinions at least when it comes to basic economic principles.“

Government Elections in Bulgaria (2005-2022):

2005 Parliamentary Elections
2006 Presidential Elections
2007 Municipal Elections
2009 Parliamentary Elections
2009 European Parliament elections
2011 Presidential Elections
2011 Local Elections
2013 Early parliamentary elections
2014 Early Parliamentary Elections
2015 Municipal Elections
2016 Presidential election
2017 Parliamentary elections
2019 European Parliament election (23-26 May)
2019 Bulgarian local elections
2019 Municipal Elections
2021 March National Parliament election
2021 Second National Parliament election
2021 Third National Parliament and Presidential elections

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