April_2021_Bulgarian_parliamentary_election

April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election

April 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election

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Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 4 April 2021 at the end of the term of National Assembly members elected in 2017.[1] 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.

Quick Facts Turnout, Party ...

Background

Electoral system

The 240 members of the National Assembly are elected by open list proportional representation from 31 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 4 to 16 seats. The electoral threshold is 4% for parties, with seats allocated using the largest remainder method.[2]

Parties and coalitions

The incumbent government was a coalition between the conservative GERB party of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and the nationalist United Patriots alliance (formed from IMRO, Attack and the NFSB), with the support of the populist Volya Movement. Together they held 132 out of 240 seats in the National Assembly.

During The Greens' 2020 national meeting, the party representatives voted in favor of a coalition at "the next parliamentary election with the other two members of Democratic Bulgaria". The party representatives voted against a "coalition with any of the political parties in the current National Assembly" - namely, GERB, BSP, DPS, Volya and OP.[3]

The deputy chairman of ITN, Toshko Yordanov, said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, that the party "will not enter a coalition with GERB, DPS or BSP".[4]

The cochairman of Democratic Bulgaria, Hristo Ivanov, stated in an interview for bTV, that "there will be no coalition with GERB, whether with or without Borisov".[5]

The chairman of Bulgaria for Citizens Movement, Dimitar Delchev, announced that his party was joining Stand Up.BG during a public presentation of the citizens' platform at Slaveykov Square, in August 2020.[6] The same was done by the chairman of Volt Bulgaria - Nastimir Ananiev,[7] as well as the chairman of the party Movement 21 - Tatyana Doncheva.[8] The citizens' organization The System Kills Us announced their support for Nikola Vaptsarov as their representative within Stand Up.BG.[7]

List

When only some of the leaders of a coalition are its official representatives, their names are in bold. All lines with a light gray background indicate support for a party or coalition that has been agreed upon outside of the official CEC electoral registration.

More information Name, Ideology ...

Opinion polls

The opinion poll results below were recalculated from the original data and exclude pollees that chose 'I will not vote' or 'I am uncertain'.

More information Polling firm, Fieldwork date ...

Notes:

  1. Percentages might not include Ataka's results, as they left the coalition around mid-2019.
  2. In an electoral alliance with SDS.
  3. IMRO-BNM only.
  4. In an electoral alliance with NFSB.
  5. The original source data had percentages that totaled 100.2 due to rounding. Due to a lack of better data, the same is true for the recalculated percentages.
  6. Results of VMRO only, no information on NFSB's results, which are probably counted as 'Others'.
  7. Combined results of separate coalitions led by Yes, Bulgaria! and DSB. The former achieved a result of 2.88%, while the latter won 2.48% of the vote.


Graphical representation of recalculated data:

Note: The above data does not include Barometer polls, due to claims by other pollsters and media that the agency only has one employee.[13]

Results

More information Party, Votes ...
Strength of each party in each constituency in the election

By constituency

More information Constituency, GERB–SDS ...

Voter demographics

Gallup exit polling suggested the following demographic breakdown.[14] The parties which received below 4% of the vote are included in 'Others':

More information Voter demographics, Social group ...

Analysis

Both GERB and BSP had very poor results and there was a large turnover with a third of the seats taken by parties not represented in the previous parliament.[15] A central theme in the election was purported corruption in the GERB-led government, which saw GERB lose seats and various anti-corruption parties gain, most notably Slavi Trifonov's ITN, but also DB and ISMV. The Bulgarian Socialist Party suffered from division between its leader Korneliya Ninova and other factions.[16] The BSP recorded their worst-ever result in a democratic election.[15] The far-right parties also suffered from splits, losing their representation in parliament;[16] the Attack party and the two remaining parties from the United Patriots alliance (the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria and Volya Movement) contested the elections separately, with none winning a seat. The three combined results of the three parties suggested they could have crossed the electoral threshold if they had run together.

The election happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a greater focus on online campaigning.[16] Contrary to expectations, voter turnout was broadly unchanged.[15]

Government formation

After his offer of a technocrat government was rejected by the opposition, Borisov said that as leader of the largest party, he would try to form a coalition government, and that he would also be open to supporting an ITN-led government. However, Borisov himself stated he would likely be unsuccessful in forming a coalition, with the likeliest outcomes being either a caretaker government followed by new elections or a coalition of parties new to Parliament.[17][16]

After former foreign minister Daniel Mitov, whom Boyko Borisov had nominated as GERB's candidate for prime minister,[18] failed to form a government,[19] the mandate was then offered to Slavi Trifonov's ITN. Chess grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova, whom Trifonov appointed to take the mandate from president Rumen Radev immediately returned it in accordance with Trifonov's wish.[20] Korneliya Ninova of BSPzB formally received the final mandate from president Radev on 5 May 2021, but refused to form a government due to a lack of support from other parliamentary opposition parties.[21] This triggered an early election (to be held on 11 July), and the president appointed a caretaker government led by Stefan Yanev[22] to run the country until the elections are over and a permanent administration is formed.[23][21]


References

  1. "Димитър Делчев: Можем и имаме силите да изгоним грабливите животни от властническото гнездо". Archived from the original on 2020-11-07. Retrieved 2020-10-21 via www.youtube.com.
  2. https://europeelects.eu/bulgaria/ Archived 2021-04-04 at the Wayback Machine Bulgaria - Europe Elects
  3. Програма на ПП „Нация“ Archived 2021-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. // Нация.бг. Посетен на 25 март 2021 г.
  4. Устав на „Движение на непартийните кандидати“ Archived 2021-05-20 at the Wayback Machine. // Justice.bg. Глава втора: Принципи, цели и начини за постигането им, страница 1. Посетен на 25 февруари 2021 г.
  5. Includes all deputies without a parliamentary group
  6. Junes, Tom (April 6, 2021). "Election Surprises End Bulgaria's Political Stability". Balkan Insight. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  7. Zankina, Emilia; Lin, Yuxiang; Haughton, Tim (April 7, 2021). "Bulgaria's election was all about corruption, not covid-19. Here are 4 takeaways". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  8. "Bulgarian PM Seeks Coalition Government But Says Effort 'Unlikely To Succeed". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. April 7, 2021. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved April 22, 2021.
  9. "Bulgaria's elections: Borissov says will propose Daniel Mitov as PM". April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  10. "Bulgaria's GERB party fails to form a government, new polls loom". Reuters. April 23, 2021. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021 via www.reuters.com.
  11. "Bulgaria: Trifonov's party formally refuses mandate to form government". April 28, 2021. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2021.
  12. "Bulgaria's president to call July election and appoint technocrat interim government". Reuters. May 5, 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-05-05. Retrieved 2021-05-05.
  13. "Bulgaria faces fresh vote as Socialists refuse to form government". www.aljazeera.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2021-05-01.

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