Bulgaria’s CEC announces seat distribution after July 11 parliamentary election
Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced on July 15 the seat distribution in the 46th National Assembly, with the full list of MPs set to be made public next week.
Cable television presenter Slavi Trifonov’s ITN party will have 65 MPs in the next Parliament, 14 more than it had in the short-lived 45th National Assembly elected in April. The party won 24.1 per cent of the vote, CEC’s final results showed.
Former Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB-Union of Democratic Forces electoral coalition were allocated 63 seats, 12 fewer than after the April election. The coalition won 23.5 per cent of the vote on July 11.
With 13.4 per cent of the vote, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) also saw its seat allocation go down from 43 to 36, while Hristo Ivanov’s Democratic Bulgaria coalition will have 34 MPs, up from 27, after getting 12.6 per cent.
Predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) won 10.7 per cent and will have 29 MPs, while the “Rise Up! Mobsters Out!” coalition between former Ombudsman Maya Manolova and “The Poison Trio” organisers of the anti-government protests in summer 2020 received five per cent and will have 13 MPs.
The MRF and Manolova’s coalition each won one fewer seat in Parliament than at the April elections.
CEC will finalise the list of MPs elected after candidates who were elected in more than one electoral district choose which one they will represent.
At its sitting on July 14, which continued late into the night, the elections body also voted to allow four candidate MPs – Boiko Borissov among them – not to take their seats in the 46th National Assembly.
The decisions were made after heated debates and repeated rounds of voting, with GERB accusing the CEC of “pursuing a personal revanche against GERB” in attempting to deny Borissov’s request.
(Photo: parliament.bg)
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