2022 Bulgarian parliamentary election

2022 Bulgarian parliamentary election

← November 2021 2 October 2022 2023 →
All 240 seats in the National Assembly 121 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	39.30% (0.87pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– GERB–SDS Boyko Borisov 24.48 67 +8 PP K. Petkov & A. Vasilev 19.52 53 −14 DPS Mustafa Karadayi 13.29 36 +2 Revival Kostadin Kostadinov 9.83 27 +14 BSPzB Korneliya Ninova 8.98 25 −1 DB Hristo Ivanov 7.19 20 +4 BV Stefan Yanev 4.47 12 New This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Distribution of seats by electoral district and largest party by district Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Galab Donev (caretaker) Independent Galab Donev (caretaker) Independent

Politics of Bulgaria
Constitution 1879 1947 1971 1991
Presidency President (list) Rumen Radev Vice President Iliana Iotova
Executive Legislative Government Prime Minister (list) Nikolay Denkov National Assembly Speaker: Rosen Zhelyazkov
Law Judiciary Nationality law Human rights Courts Constitutional Court Supreme Administrative Court Supreme Court of Cassation Office of the General Prosecutor
Major political parties PP GERB DPS Bulgarian Socialist Party Democratic Bulgaria Revival Bulgarian Rise
Recent elections Presidential: 2011 2016 2021 Parliamentary: 2022 2023 2024 European: 2014 2019 2024
Administrative divisions Provinces (oblasti) Municipalities (obshtini)
Foreign relations 2007 EU enlargement Kristalina Georgieva Politics of the European Union
Bulgaria portal Other countries
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Early parliamentary elections were held in Bulgaria on 2 October 2022 to elect members of the 48th National Assembly. The snap election was called after the fall of the Petkov Government, a four-party coalition, in June 2022. This was the fourth parliamentary election since 2021, an unprecedented situation in Bulgarian history, the previous elections being the April, July, and November 2021 elections.

As in the previous snap elections, no party secured a majority. The GERB–SDS alliance emerged as the largest bloc with 67 seats and was assigned the task of forming a government by President Rumen Radev, but their efforts failed. Radev then granted the We Continue the Change party and later the BSP for Bulgaria coalition a mandate to form a government, but both were unsuccessful. As a result, Radev scheduled another parliamentary election, the fifth in two years, to take place on 2 April 2023.

Turnout was at 39%, the lowest since 1990.^[1]

Background

The

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 according to the largest remainder method.^[4][5]

Political groups

The table below lists the political party groups represented in the 47th National Assembly.

Competing parties

Opinion polls

Graphical representation of recalculated data

Local regression of polls conducted

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

Results

Voter demographics

Alpha Research exit polling suggested the following demographic breakdown. The parties that got below 4% of the vote are included in "Others".

By constituency

Aftermath and coalition formation

As per the Bulgarian Constitution, the Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is required to hand a mandate for government formation to the largest party. If they don't propose a government within seven days, or if that government is rejected by the Bulgarian Parliament, President Radev will hand the second mandate to the second largest party. If the second mandate also doesn't produce a government, the president will grant a third mandate to a party of his choice. If no government is approved by Parliament after all three mandates have been returned, new elections will be scheduled. Neither GERB nor PP, the first and second largest party respectively, are expected to be able to form a stable government.^[8]

Following the election, GERB leader

On 18 October, Borisov announced that his attempts to broker a coalition government prior to the first sitting of the new Assembly were unsuccessful.[14] The following day, the Assembly failed to elect a speaker during its first meeting, the first time this ever occurred. After multiple failed attempts, the Assembly elected its oldest member, the GERB MP Vezhdi Rashidov, as speaker on 21 October, after he was nominated by Korneliya Ninova, the leader of BSP, as a consensus candidate.^[15][16] The gridlock to form a new government persisted throughout October and November 2022 and before a first or second mandate was given, President Rumen Radev stated that he would delay handing over the third mandate for government formation until after the New Year so as to delay elections until March 2023 and avoid the most difficult winter period.^[17]

On 2 December, Radev stated that he would hand the government mandate to the election's winner GERB the following Monday. On 5 December, Radev granted the first mandate to GERB's nominee, Nikolay Gabrovski. One week later, on 12 December, Gabrovski proposed a new government.^[18] His prime ministership was rejected by Parliament (113 for, 125 against, 2 absent) two days later on 14 December, with MPs from the DPS and BV voting in favour alongside GERB.^[19] On January 3, Radev gave the second mandate to PP's candidate, Nikolai Denkov,^[20] but his prime ministership was also rejected by Parliament (63 for, 84 against, 30 abstain, 63 absent).^[21] Radev gave the third mandate to Ninova, although she rejected to form a government in a deadlocked parliament.^[22] Observers already pointed at an unprecedented fourth snap election to be held in 2023, as no new government could be formed.^[23][24]

References