Bulgaria’s CEC announces seat distribution after November 14 parliamentary election
Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) announced late on November 18 the seat distribution in the 47th National Assembly, with the full list of MPs set to be made public next week.
The recently-formed “We Continue the Change” (WCC) party of former caretaker cabinet ministers Kiril Petkov and Assen Vassilev will have 65 MPs in the next Parliament after winning 25.7 per cent of the vote in the November 14 parliamentary elections.
Former Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB-Union of Democratic Forces electoral coalition were allocated 59 seats, four fewer than after the July 11 snap polls and down from 75 seats it won in the April 4 regular parliamentary elections. The coalition won 22.7 per cent of the vote on November 14.
Predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) surged into third with 13 per cent, boosted by the votes received outside of the country, where it won 39.2 per cent, mainly due to a strong showing at the polling stations in Turkey. MRF won 34 seats, up from 29 in July and 30 in April.
With 10.2 per cent of the vote, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) sunk to fourth, its lowest ever, and would have 26 MPs. It won 43 and 36 seats at the April and July elections, respectively.
Cable television presenter Slavi Trifonov’s ITN party will have 25 seats, suffering a precipitous drop from the 65 it won in July and 51 in April. The party won 9.5 per cent of the vote, CEC’s final results showed.
Hristo Ivanov’s Democratic Bulgaria coalition won 6.4 per cent and will have 16 MPs, down from 34 MPs after the July parliamentary elections and 27 seats won in April.
Pro-Russian and anti-vaxxer Vuzrazhdane party will have the smallest group in the next National Assembly after clearing the parliamentary representation threshold for the first time with 4.9 per cent of the vote. It will have 13 MPs.
The final turnout in the parliamentary elections was 40.2 per cent, CEC data showed.
CEC will finalise the list of MPs elected on November 22, after candidates who were elected in more than one electoral district choose which one they will represent, while some candidates initially deemed elected may inform the commission that they did not want to take up their seats.
(Bulgaria’s National Assembly plenary hall. Photo: parliament.bg)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the orange button below. For as little as three euro a month or the equivalent in other currencies, you can support The Sofia Globe via patreon.com and get access to exclusive subscriber-only content: