Who has Bulgaria elected as its MEPs?
With several polling agencies showing similar projected results after Bulgaria’s May 25 2014 European Parliament elections, there is some indication – but only some – about who will be the country’s 17 MEPs.
There are two wild cards in determining the final list, beyond the fact that current estimates are based on exit polls and not on official results. The first is that some of the list leaders may not actually take up their seats. The second depends on the extent that voters exercised their options under the preferential voting system to rearrange candidates of the parties of the choice.
Most polls were saying that the share-out of seats would be GERB six, the Bulgarian Socialist Party four, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms four, Bulgaria Without Censorship (BWC) two and the Reformist Bloc one.
Were none of those apparently elected decline to take up their seat and none fall victim to preferential voting, the list would be:
GERB: Tomislav Donchev, Andrei Kovachev, Maria Gabriel, Vladimir Uruchev, Eva Paunova and Emil Radev.
Bulgarian Socialist Party: Sergei Stanishev (who reportedly has said he will not take up his seat), Iliyana Yotova, Georgi Pirinski, Petar Kurumbashev.
Movement for Rights and Freedoms: Filiz Hyusmenova, Delyan Peevski (update: he told a news conference he would not take up his seat), Nedzhim Ali, Ilhan Kyuchok.
BWC: Nikolai Barekov (another question mark case, although he said at an election night news conference that he would take up his seat), Angel Dzhambazki.
Reformist Bloc: Meglena Kouneva (voters for the bloc were the most active in exercising preferential votes, leading to speculation that this may mean that Kouneva may not be declared elected).
