Bulgarian local elections, 2015

Bulgaria

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Bulgaria
Constitution 1879 1947 1971 1991
Presidency President (list) Rosen Plevneliev Vice President Margarita Popova
Executive Legislative Government Prime Minister (list) Boyko Borisov National Assembly Speaker: Tsetska Tsacheva
Law Judiciary Nationality law Human rights Courts Constitutional Court Supreme Administrative Court Supreme Court of Cassation
Major political parties GERB Bulgarian Socialist Party DPS Reformist Bloc Patriotic Front Bulgaria Without Censorship Attack
Recent elections Presidential 2006 2011 2016 Parliamentary 2009 2013 2014
Administrative divisions Provinces (oblasti) Municipalities (obshtini)
Foreign relations 2007 EU enlargement Kristalina Georgieva
Other countries Atlas

Local elections were held in all municipalities in Bulgaria on 25 October 2015 (first round) and on 1 November 2015 (second round). Voters elected municipal mayors, village mayors and members of municipal councils of 265 municipalities. They were held alongside a referendum on the electoral code.

Background

The local elections took place after two years of political instability and it was a test for the one year old fragile ruling central-right coalition led by GERB party. Analysts expected the elections to bring a serious changes in the government of Boyko Borisov. A national referendum was also scheduled together with the local elections. The referendum was initiated by the President of Bulgaria, Rosen Plevneliev on online voting, after the other two questions about mandatory voting and majority rep ware rejected by the parliament.

Controversy

The election campaign was accompanied by multiple scandals about vote-buying, voting tourists and arrests. On the election day, the election authorities in some polling stations did not provide ballots. After the first round, members of election officials were kept 48 hours locked in the election authority counting center at Arena Aremeec Hall.^[1]^[2]

Results

First round

GERB, the leading party in the government central-right conditionally won 34.5% of the vote and their incumbent mayors were reelected in Sofia, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnov, Stara Zagora, Blagoevgrad and Haskovo. Second and third were the opposition parties the Bulgarian Socialist Party with 17.2% and the Right and Freedom Movement (the Turkish ethnic party) with 14.6% and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. The smaller parties from the ruling coalition, the Reformist Block, ABV and the Patriot Front, got respectively 9%, 4.3% and 5.2%.^[3]

The turnout of the first round was 53.6% which was 5% higher than 2011 local elections.

References

↑ Over 1000 'to Be Detained' over Vote Buying - Bulgarian PM
↑ Chaos in Arena Armeec hall result of Election Code drawn up by Maya Manolova: Bulgaria’s CEDB member
↑ Bulgaria October 2015 election

Elections in Bulgaria

Parliamentary elections	1879 (Jan) 1879 (Sep-Oct) 1880 1881 (Jan) 1881 (Jun) 1882 1884 1886 1887 1890 1893 (Apr) 1893 (Jul) 1894 1896 1899 1901 1902 1903 1908 1911 (Jun) 1911 (Sep) 1913 1914 1919 1920 1923 (Apr) 1923 (Nov) 1927 1931 1938 1939 1945 1946 1949 1953 1957 1962 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1990 1991 1994 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2014 next

Presidential elections	1992 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016

Local elections	2015

European elections	2007 2009 2014

Elections in Eastern Rumelia	1879 1884

Referendums	1922 1946 1971 2013 2015 2016

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