2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election

2009 Bulgarian parliamentary election

5 July 2009
All 240 seats in theNational Assembly 121 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	60.64%
Party Leader % 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 M. Dimitrov&I. Kostov 6.76 15 New RZS Yane Yanev 4.13 10 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Prime Ministerbefore Prime Minister after Sergei Stanishev BSP Boyko Borisov GERB

The leaders ofGERBtake their seats in front of reporters before giving a press conference after the election

Parliamentary elections were held inBulgariaon 5 July 2009.With 40% of the vote, the decisive winner of the elections was the established in 2006 personalistic party ofBoyko Borisov,GERB.TheSocialist Party,in power before the election, was in second place, with around 18%. Оnce-rulingNational Movement Simeon IIdid 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 parallelvoting systemwith 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 forFirst Past the Post.

The rulingBulgarian Socialist Partywanted 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).

An electoral reform was passed in April 2009 with the votes of theBSP,theDPS,AtakaandOrder, Law and Justice.It would raise theelection thresholdfor alliances from 4% to 8% (which was widely seen as a move against the opposition electoral alliance ofDSBandSDS,which was polling around 7.3% at that time) and established that 31 of the 240 seats would be elected by majority vote.PresidentGeorgi Parvanovreturned 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 theConstitutional Court of Bulgaria.

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.On 29 May 2009, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the CEC's decision, allowing the Blue Coalition to contest the election.

Participating parties

Parties standing in the election included:

• Order, Law and Justice(Ред, Законност, Справедливост)
• Lider(Лидер)
• GERB(ГЕРБ)
• Movement for Rights and Freedoms(ДПС)
• Attack(Атака)
• Coalition for Bulgaria(led by theBulgarian Socialist Party) (Коалиция за България)
• Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense"(Съюз на Патриотичните Сили "Защита")
• National Movement for Stability and Progress(formerly the National Movement Simeon II) (НДСВ)
• Coalition BANU(Коалиция БЗНС)(disqualified from the election)
• Bulgarian Left Coalition(Българска Лява Коалиция)
• Party of the Liberal Alternative and Peace(Партия на Либералната Алтернатива и Мира (ПЛАМ))
• The Greens(ПП Зелените)
• Social Democrats(Социалдемократи)
• VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement(ВМРО – Българско Национално Движение)(disqualified from the election)
• The Other Bulgaria(ПП Другата България)
• Union of the Bulgarian Patriots(Обединение на Българските Патриоти)
• National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland(Политическа партия "Национално движение за спасение на Отечеството")
• Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy(Български Национален Съюз – НД)
• Blue Coalition(Синята Коалиция)
• For the Homeland(За Родината – ДГИ-НЛ)

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
Alpha Research	1 July	56	33.9	19.5	14.1	9	8.1	4.2	4.5	4.1

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.

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	GERB	1,678,641	39.72	90	1,554,609	39.40	26	116	New
	Coalition for Bulgaria	748,147	17.70	40	792,218	20.08	0	40	−42
	Movement for Rights and Freedoms	610,521	14.45	33	346,431	8.78	5	38	+4
	Attack	395,733	9.36	21	372,608	9.44	0	21	0
	Blue Coalition	285,662	6.76	15	258,190	6.54	0	15	−22
	Order, Law and Justice	174,582	4.13	10	167,011	4.23	0	10	New
	Lider	137,795	3.26	0	153,980	3.90	0	0	New
	National Movement for Stability and Progress	127,470	3.02	0	169,098	4.29	0	0	–53
	The Greens	21,841	0.52	0	26,130	0.66	0	0	New
	For the Homeland	11,524	0.27	0	365	0.01	0	0	–
	Bulgarian Left Coalition	8,762	0.21	0	12,047	0.31	0	0	–
	Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense"	6,368	0.15	0	7,372	0.19	0	0	–
	Political Movement "Social Democrats"	5,004	0.12	0	2,581	0.07	0	0	New
	Bulgarian New Democracy	3,813	0.09	0	4,479	0.11	0	0	New
	The Other Bulgaria	3,455	0.08	0	164	0.00	0	0	New
	Party of the Liberal Alternative and Peace	2,828	0.07	0	117	0.00	0	0	–
	Union of the Bulgarian Patriots	2,175	0.05	0	4,463	0.11	0	0	–
	National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland	1,874	0.04	0	3,289	0.08	0	0	New
	Independents				70,676	1.79	0	0	0
Total		4,226,195	100.00	209	3,945,828	100.00	31	240	0
Valid votes		4,226,195	97.75
Invalid/blank votes		97,387	2.25
Total votes		4,323,582	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,129,965	60.64
Source:CIK,

The following members were elected throughfirst past the post votingin 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 kingSimeon II'sNational Movement for Stability and Progressparty and before he was also a member of theCommunist Party,though he and his party's policy are opposite to the Communist. The rulingBulgarian Socialist Party-headedCoalition for Bulgariagathered 17.70% but no majority vote seats. The Muslim minority's partyMovement for Rights and Freedomsamassed 14.45% and won the remaining five majority vote seats, the nationalist partyAttackcame fourth with 9.36% of the proportional vote, followed by the right-wingBlue Coalitionof former ruling elements with 6.76% and the newlyOrder, Law and Justice,whose tally was at 4.13%. Parties such asLiderand Saxe-Coburg Gotha's once-ruling NDSV did not cross the 4% threshold and won no seats.Thevoter turnoutof 60.20%was perceived as high, but was not unexpected.

As a result of the election,the governmentwas formed by GERB alone with Boyko Borisov asPrime Minister.BSP and DPS, two of the members of the formercentre-leftruling coalition, were put in opposition.Due to the party's failure in the elections, not electing a single member of parliament, formerTsarand more recently Prime Minister resigned as NDSV leader on 6 July.While Prime MinisterSergei Stanishevtook 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.

See also

• List of political parties in Bulgaria
• List of Bulgarian constituencies

External links

• NSD: European Election Database - BulgariaArchived2016-03-20 at theWayback Machinepublishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1990-2009