Parliamentary elections were held in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

on 26 March 2017. They had originally been scheduled for 2018 at the end of the four-year term of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

. However, following the resignation of

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Boyko Borisov and the failure of Bulgarian parties to form a government, early elections were called. Borisov resigned following the defeat of Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of his GERB party, in the November 2016 presidential elections.Bulgarian PM Borisov resigns, snap parliamentary polls likely
Reuters, 14 November 2016 The official election campaign began on 24 February. GERB won a plurality, with 95 of the 240 seats. Borisov was elected Prime Minister again after negotiating a governing coalition.

Background

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Borisov promised to resign if his party's candidate, Chairperson of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva, lost the election. On 6 November 2016 Tsacheva finished second in the first round to BSP-backed Major General Rumen Radev, receiving only 22% of the popular vote compared to Radev's 25.4%. Following the result, Borisov reiterated his promise to resign if his party's candidate lost the runoff election a week later. On November 13, 2016, she finished a distant second with only 36.2% of the popular vote compared to Radev's 59.4%. Borisov, staying true to his campaign promise, subsequently resigned on 14 November. Two days later, the National Assembly voted 218–0 to accept it.

Electoral system

The 240 members of the National Assembly are elected by

closed list Closed list describes the variant of party-list systems where voters can effectively vote for only political parties as a whole; thus they have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters had some in ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

from 31 multi-member constituencies ranging in size from 4 to 16 seats. The electoral threshold is 4%. Bulgarians abroad were able to vote in 371 voting sections in 70 foreign countries and territories. Some territories were excluded from this provision due to either security concerns (e.g.

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

) or that very few resident Bulgarian nationals resident in the country had submitted requests to be enabled to vote (e.g.

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Participating parties

The deadline for political parties to register for the election was 8 February 2017. Despite holding 15 seats in the Assembly, Reload Bulgaria chose not to compete in the election after being initially refused a name change, among other reasons. The list of registered parties is below.

Opinion polls

Percentages do not account for undecided voters. 'Date' column signifies the last date of the survey in question, not the date of publication. : Combined result of the Patriotic Front and Attack.

Results

2017 Bulgarian parliamentary election - Vote Strength

Five parties crossed the 4% threshold required to gain seats. GERB maintained their position as the largest party.

Voter demographics

Gallup exit polling suggested the following demographic breakdown.

Aftermath and government formation

Boyko Borisov appeared set to resume his tenure as Prime Minister, possibly with a coalition with the United Patriots, and ultimately formed the Third Borisov Government with the United Patriots.

References

{{Bulgarian elections

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

Parliamentary elections in Bulgaria