Parliamentary elections were held in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

on 19 April 1997. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 369 The result was a victory for the

United Democratic Forces The United Democratic Forces ( bg, Обединени Демократични Сили, ОДС/ODS) were a center-right electoral alliance in Bulgaria, led by the Union of Democratic Forces. Members of the coalition 1997 * Union of Democrati ...

(an alliance of the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS), the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union-Nikola Petkov and the

Bulgarian Social Democratic Party The Bulgarian Social Democratic Party ( bg, Българска социалдемократическа партия, ''Balgarska Sotsialdemokraticheska Partiya'', BSDP) is a social democratic political party in Bulgaria. It was part of the Blue ...

), which won 137 of the 240 seats. Following the election, SDS leader

Ivan Kostov Ivan Yordanov Kostov ( bg, Иван Йорданов Костов ) (born 23 December 1949, in Sofia) was the 47th Prime Minister of Bulgaria in office from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) between Dec ...

became Prime Minister.Bulgaria: Elections held in 1997
Inter-Parliamentary Union

Results

Aftermath

Following the elections, Ivan Kostov formed the

Kostov Government The eighty-fourth cabinet of Bulgaria ruled from May 21, 1997 to July 24, 2001. The government was formed by the United Democratic Forces, an electoral alliance led by the Union of Democratic Forces, after they won a landslide victory in the 199 ...

References

{{Bulgarian elections

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

Parliamentary elections in Bulgaria