2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election
Bulgaria
5 July 2009
All 240 seats in the National Assembly
121 seats needed for a majority
Turnout60.64%
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
GERB Boyko Borisov 39.72 116 New
BSPzB Sergei Stanishev 17.70 40 −42
DPS Ahmed Dogan 14.45 38 +4
Ataka Volen Siderov 9.36 21 0
SDS+DSB Martin Dimitrov, Ivan Kostov 6.76 15 New
RZS Yane Yanev 4.13 10 New
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Sergei Stanishev Sergei Stanishev
BSP		 Boyko Borisov
GERB		Boyko Borisov
The leaders of GERB take their seats in front of reporters before giving a press conference after the election

Parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 5 July 2009.[1][2] With 40% of the vote, the decisive winner of the elections was the established in 2006 personalistic party of Boyko Borisov, GERB. The Socialist Party, in power before the election, was in second place, with around 18%. Оnce-ruling National Movement Simeon II did not cross the 4% threshold and won no seats. The turnout was 60.6%, one of the lowest ever. Following the election, GERB leader Boyko Borisov became Prime Minister. Just like all the previous parliamentary elections since the fall of communism, the government was not re-elected.

Background

The 2009 elections saw the debut of a parallel voting system with a lesser plurality vote element. 209 of the 240 parliament seats were distributed according to the proportional system, while the remaining 31 (the number of voting constituencies in Bulgaria) were allocated for First Past the Post.[3]

The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party wanted to amend the electoral law, increasing state subsidies for political parties threefold (the reason for doing this would be making campaign financing more transparent, they claim), requiring registration in at least two-thirds of all electoral districts (thus eliminating most marginal parties).[4]

An electoral reform was passed in April 2009 with the votes of the BSP, the DPS, Ataka and Order, Law and Justice. It would raise the election threshold for alliances from 4% to 8% (which was widely seen as a move against the opposition electoral alliance of DSB and SDS, which was polling around 7.3% at that time) and established that 31 of the 240 seats would be elected by majority vote.[5][6] President Georgi Parvanov returned the law to parliament for reconsideration, but as the parties had no plans to amend it and as he could only return the law once, he had to sign it before the election. After the law had been passed, the provision raising the electoral threshold was struck down by the Constitutional Court of Bulgaria.[7]

The Blue Coalition was denied registration for the election by the Central Election Commission on 28 May 2009 due to a leadership struggle in the SDS, one of the two constituent parties. The Blue Coalition announced it would appeal the ruling.[8] On 29 May 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the CEC's decision, allowing the Blue Coalition to contest the election.[9]

Participating parties

Parties standing in the election included:[10]

Opinion polls

  • The following are the polls for the proportional vote:
Source Date Turnout GERB BSP DPS Ataka BC NDSV Lider RZS
NCIOM 3 July 55 29-32 20-22 13-14 9-11 8-9 5-5.5 5-5.5 4 [11]
Alpha Research 1 July 56 33.9 19.5 14.1 9 8.1 4.2 4.5 4.1 [12]

Results

Results of the election, showing vote strength by electoral district. Top: results in FPTP constituencies. Bottom: results in proportional constituencies.
Simple results of the FPTP constituencies.
PartyProportionalConstituencyTotal
seats		+/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
GERB1,678,64139.72901,554,60939.4026116New
Coalition for Bulgaria748,14717.7040792,21820.08040−42
Movement for Rights and Freedoms610,52114.4533346,4318.78538+4
Attack395,7339.3621372,6089.440210
Blue Coalition285,6626.7615258,1906.54015−22
Order, Law and Justice174,5824.1310167,0114.23010New
Lider137,7953.260153,9803.9000New
National Movement for Stability and Progress127,4703.020169,0984.2900–53
The Greens21,8410.52026,1300.6600New
For the Homeland11,5240.2703650.0100–
Bulgarian Left Coalition8,7620.21012,0470.3100–
Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense"6,3680.1507,3720.1900–
Political Movement "Social Democrats"5,0040.1202,5810.0700New
Bulgarian New Democracy3,8130.0904,4790.1100New
The Other Bulgaria3,4550.0801640.0000New
Party of the Liberal Alternative and Peace2,8280.0701170.0000–
Union of the Bulgarian Patriots2,1750.0504,4630.1100–
National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland1,8740.0403,2890.0800New
Independents70,6761.79000
Total4,226,195100.002093,945,828100.00312400
Valid votes4,226,19597.75
Invalid/blank votes97,3872.25
Total votes4,323,582100.00
Registered voters/turnout7,129,96560.64
Source: CIK,

The following members were elected through first past the post voting in 31 single-member constituencies:

Constituency Member Party
Blagoevgrad Lyben Tatarski GERB
Burgas Bozhidar Stoyanov GERB
Varna Krasimir Petrov GERB
Veliko Tarnovo Tsvetan Tsvetanov GERB
Vidin Lyubomila Stanislavova GERB
Vratsa Nikolay Kotsev GERB
Gabrovo Galina Bankovska GERB
Dobrich Rumen Ivanov GERB
Kardzhali Ahmed Dogan DPS
Kyustendil Valentin Mikev GERB
Lovech Anatoliy Yordanov GERB
Montana Plamen Tsekov GERB
Pazardzhik Ivan Ivanov GERB
Pernik Irena Sokolova GERB
Pleven Tsetska Tsacheva GERB
Plovdiv City Menda Stoyanova GERB
Plovdiv Oblast Dimitar Lazarov GERB
Razgrad Hasan Ademov DPS
Ruse Plamen Nunev GERB
Silistra Mithat Tabakov DPS
Sliven Desislava Taneva GERB
Smolyan Daniela Daritkova-Prodanova GERB
Sofia 23 Boris Grozdanov GERB
Sofia 24 Monika Panayotova GERB
Sofia 25 Krasimir Velchev GERB
Sofia-province Emil Dimitrov GERB
Stara Zagora Ivan Kolev GERB
Targovishte Kasim Dal DPS
Haskovo Delyan Dobrev GERB
Shumen Georgi Kolev DPS
Yambol Anastas Anastasov GERB

Aftermath

The elections were decisively won by Boyko Borisov's GERB party, which gained 39.72% of the proportional vote and 26 of the 31 majority vote parliament seats, in total 116 and almost half of the Assembly's 240 seats. Until the elections Borisov was Mayor of Sofia and left office to become Prime Minister, until 2005 he was a member of the former king Simeon II's National Movement for Stability and Progress party and before he was also a member of the Communist Party, though he and his party's policy are opposite to the Communist. The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party-headed Coalition for Bulgaria gathered 17.70% but no majority vote seats. The Muslim minority's party Movement for Rights and Freedoms amassed 14.45% and won the remaining five majority vote seats, the nationalist party Attack came fourth with 9.36% of the proportional vote, followed by the right-wing Blue Coalition of former ruling elements with 6.76% and the newly Order, Law and Justice, whose tally was at 4.13%. Parties such as Lider and Saxe-Coburg Gotha's once-ruling NDSV did not cross the 4% threshold and won no seats.[13][14] The voter turnout of 60.20%[15] was perceived as high, but was not unexpected.[16]

As a result of the election, the government was formed by GERB alone with Boyko Borisov as Prime Minister. BSP and DPS, two of the members of the former centre-left ruling coalition, were put in opposition.[17][18] Due to the party's failure in the elections, not electing a single member of parliament, former Tsar and more recently Prime Minister resigned as NDSV leader on 6 July.[19] While Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev took the responsibility for the socialists' electoral failure, he did not resign as party leader and continued to lead the party in opposition through to the next election.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ President Georgi Parvanov chooses 5th July 2009 for date of parliamentary elections. Radio Bulgaria. April 29, 2009.
  2. ↑ Bulgaria elections. Election Guide.
  3. ↑ Александрова, Нина (2009-07-05). "България избира 41-во Народно събрание" (in Bulgarian). Darik News. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  4. ↑ Junior ally supports Bulgarian ruling party's proposal for electoral reform. Southeast European Times. July 2, 2009.
  5. ↑ Neue Acht-Prozent-Hürde für Parteibündnisse. Der Standard. April 14, 2009.
  6. ↑ Kyustendil Mayor Quits Bulgarian Rightist Coalition Archived June 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Bulgarian News Network. March 31, 2009.
  7. ↑ Bulgarian court blocks higher election threshold. Southeast European Times. May 13, 2009.
  8. ↑ New Bulgarian coalition denied election registration. Southeast European Times. May 29, 2009
  9. ↑ Blue Coalition allowed to take part in vote. Southeast European Times. May 31, 2009.
  10. ↑ Централна избирателна комисия Archived 2011-10-07 at the Wayback Machine. Central Election Commission.
  11. ↑ НЦИОМ: При 55% активност - ГЕРБ - 29 - 32%, БСП - 20 - 22%, ДПС - 13 - 14%. Bgfactor.com. July 3, 2009.
  12. ↑ General Elections 2009 - Electoral Turnout Archived 2009-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. Alpha Research.
  13. ↑ "Резултати за страната при обработени 100.00% протоколи на СИК в РИК" (in Bulgarian). ЦИК. 2009-07-07. Archived from the original on 2009-07-07. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  14. ↑ "Bulgaria opposition wins election". BBC. 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  15. ↑ "Избирателна активност за страната към края на изборния ден" (in Bulgarian). Централна избирателна комисия. Archived from the original on 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  16. ↑ "Висока избирателна активност на изборите прогнозират социолози" (in Bulgarian). Екип Нюз. 2009-07-04. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2009-07-08.
  17. ↑ "Борисов ще е премиер, остана без часовник заради бас" (in Bulgarian). Dnes.bg. 2009-07-05. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  18. ↑ "Борисов обеща бърз кабинет и съкращения на висши чиновници" (in Bulgarian). Дневник. 2009-07-06. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  19. ↑ Bulgaria Former Tsar, PM Saxe-Coburg Resigns as Party Leader, Novinite, Sofia, 6 July, 2009.Accessed: 10 October 2009.
  20. ↑ Борисова, Биляна (2009-07-06). "Станишев: Нося отговорност за всичко, но няма да подам оставка" (in Bulgarian). Дневник. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
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