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 1990Grand 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.
The latest parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 27 October 2024.
Parliamentary election results
Turnout
1986
1990
1991
1994
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2014
2017
April 2021
July 2021
Nov 2021
2022
2023
2024
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%
Recent elections
Results of the 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary elections, with distribution of seats by electoral district.
The results showed that no party attained a majority in the National Assembly, with GERB attaining a plurality of seats. Turnout was 34.4 percent, the lowest since the end of communist rule in 1989.[1][2]
Four nationwide referendums have been held in Bulgaria since it gained its De Facto independence in 1878:
On 19 November 1922 the question was if criminals from the three previous wars were to be prosecuted;[3]
On 8 September 1946 the question was if Bulgaria was to remain a monarchy or become a republic;[4]
On 16 May 1971 the nation's approval of a new constitution was asked;[5]
On 27 January 2013 the question was if Bulgaria should develop its nuclear power by building a new nuclear power plant.[6][7]
On 25 October 2015 the question was if Bulgaria should introduce electronic voting.
On 6 November 2016 voters were asked three questions. The questions were: Whether they supported limiting public funding of political parties; the introduction of compulsory voting in elections and referendums; and changing the electoral system for the National Assembly to the two-round system.
Several regional referendums have been held as well.
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