Bulgaria’s CEC announces seat distribution after October 27 parliamentary election
Bulgaria’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has announced the seat distribution in the 51st National Assembly, with the full list of MPs set to be made public next week.
Former Prime Minister Boiko Borissov’s GERB-Union of Democratic Forces electoral coalition were allocated 69 seats, one more than after the June 9 early election, after receiving 26.39 per cent of the votes.
The We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (WCC-DB) electoral coalition will have 37 MPs in the next Parliament, down two, as it finished second in the voting with 14.2 per cent.
Pro-Russian Vuzrazhdane will have 35 MPs, losing three seats, after receiving 13.36 per cent of the votes.
Delyan Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning coalition was allocated 30 seats, having won 11.55 per cent, up from 22 it had at the end of the 50th National Assembly.
The predominantly ethnic Turk Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) won 47 seats in last parliament, but splintered as co-leader Peevski clashed with founder Ahmed Dogan on a number of issues.
Dogan’s Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) coalition will have 19 MPs, down from 25 who took Dogan’s side and left the MRF group led by Peevski in the previous Parliament. The coalition won 7.48 per cent of the vote.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which replaced its longtime leader Kornelia Ninova after the previous election, appears to have stemmed its slow decline, if only for the time being, and won 20 seats, one more than in the previous Parliament, after receiving 7.57 per cent of the vote.
Cable presenter Slavi Trifonov’s ITN will have 18 MPs, up from 16 in the 50th National Assembly, after winning 6.78 per cent of the vote.
The smallest group in Parliament will be populist-nationalist Mech, which cleared the four per cent threshold for the first time and will have 12 MPs after receiving 4.6 per cent of the vote.
Velichie, another small nationalist-populist party, dropped out of Parliament after failing to clear the threshold by the slimmest of margins. Final CEC figures confirmed the preliminary data that put Velichie at 3.999 per cent – or an estimated 21 votes short of the threshold. Its short-lived group in the 50th National Assembly, which fell apart due to infighting, had 13 MPs.
CEC will finalise the list of MPs elected no later than November 4, after candidates who were elected in more than one electoral district choose which seat they will take, while some candidates initially deemed elected may inform the commission that they did not want to take up their seats.
The CEC also made public the final turnout figures for the October 27 election, which were 38.94 per cent, up from 34.41 per cent in the June 9 elections.
(Photo: parliament.bg)
Please support independent journalism by clicking on the 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:
