Local elections in Bulgaria were held on 29 October 2023.[1] Mayors and municipal councillors across the country were elected.[2]

Electoral system

The elections to Bulgaria's municipal councils are conducted via proportional representation with an open list preferential voting system.

The mayoral elections take place within the context of a majoritarian two-round system. The first round of the elections will be held on 29 October. If no candidate in a given constituency manages to gain 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held for that constituency in the second round on 5 November.[3]

Voting is officially mandatory, but in practice there is no punishment for failing to vote and the law itself isn't strictly enforced.[4]

Voters further have the option to vote against all proposed candidates.[5]

Contesting parties

Name Ideology Position Leader(s) 2023 result
Votes (%) Seats
BND Bulgarian New Democracy Conservative liberalism Centre-right Valery Timov DNP
0 / 240
Svoboda Freedom Bulgarian nationalism Right-wing Vladimir Simenov DNP
0 / 240
Zelenite Party of the Greens (Bulgaria) Green Politics
Anti-corruption		 Syncretic Vladimir Simenov Together (Bulgaria)
0 / 240
DD Direct Democracy (Bulgaria) Direct democracy Syncretic Petar Klisarov DNP
0 / 240
DnG Movement for Our Cities Local politics Centre Atanas Kalchev DNP
0 / 240
Volya Volya Bulgarian nationalism
Right-wing populism		 Right-wing Veselin Mareshki DNP
0 / 240
Revival Revival Ultranationalism
Russophilia		 Far-right Kostadin Kostadinov 13.58
37 / 240
DPS Movement for Rights and Freedoms Turkish Minority interests
Liberalism		 Centre Mustafa Karadayi 13.18
36 / 240
Euroma Euroroma Romani Minority interests Centre Tsvetalin Kanchev DNP
0 / 240
BSD Bulgarian Social Democrats Social democracy Centre-left Georgi Atanasov

Mariya Dobreva

 DNP
0 / 240
BSDE Bulgarian Social Democracy -Euro Left Social democracy Centre-left Aleksandar Tomov 0.10
0 / 240
SDS Union of Democratic Forces Christian democracy
Conservatism		 Centre-right Rumen Hristov (GERB-SDS)
2 / 240
KOD Conservative Union of the Right National conservatism
Right-wing populism		 Right-wing Petar Moskov 0.29
0 / 240
VMRO VMRO – Bulgarian National Movement

National conservatism
Bulgarian nationalism

 Right-wing to far-right Angel Dzhambazki DNP
0 / 240

Local coalitions

Name Location Ideology
Leader(s)
RzSR Development for Septemvri and the Region Septemvri Local politics Radoslav Lyutakov
UP Union for Plovdiv Plovdiv Local politics
Centre-right		 Yevelin Paraskov
Veselin Kozarev

Mayorship of Sofia

The election for the position of Mayor of Sofia, Bulgaria's capital and largest city, is expected to be hotly contested and will result in a new mayor being elected, as incumbent mayor Yordanka Fandakova from GERB has announced she will not seek re-election.

Opinion polls for Mayor of Sofia

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample Vasil Terziev Anton Hekimyan Dean Nikolov Vanya Grigorova Vili Lilkov Others None of
the above		 Lead
PP DB SS GERB SDS Revival BSP Levitsata!
ЕСТАТ 29.09-9.10 2023 800 27.8 18.7 20.6 6.4 7.2
CAM 21–25 Jul 2023 1,212 33.4 22.7 12.0 10.6 4.8 7.9 2.7 10.7

Results

First round

According to Central Election Commission the number of people who voted on 29 October totaled 2,713,979 or 44.94% of eligible voters. The turnout was 49.76% in the 2019 local elections. The invalid ballots in the 29 October, 2023 elections totaled over half a million, including 412,711 ballots for municipal councilors, 94,195 for municipality mayor (down from 128,204 in 2019) and 34,235 for mayoralty mayor.[6]

In general, GERB had the strongest showing throughout the country, although the party failed to make it to the second round in the capital.[7]

Second round

Overall, GERB won 11 regional towns, PP–DB won four, and the Bulgarian Socialist party won three. Of the largest four cities, PP-DB won in the capital (Sofia) and Varna while GERB won in Plovdiv and Burgas.[8]

References

  1. ↑ staff, The Sofia Globe (2023-07-31). "Bulgaria to hold 2023 municipal and mayoral elections on October 29". The Sofia Globe. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  2. ↑ "Bulgaria's President set a Date for this year's Local Elections - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency". www.novinite.com. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
  3. ↑ "Местни избори 2019: Права и задължения". bgnes. 2019-09-27. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  4. ↑ "Конституционният съд отмени санкцията за задължителното гласуване - България". dariknews.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  5. ↑ "Централна избирателна комисия - Често Задавани Въпроси". www.cik.bg. Retrieved 2019-10-24.
  6. ↑ https://www.bta.bg/en/news/bulgaria/560753-over-2-7-million-voters-and-half-million-invalid-ballots-in-oct-29-elections
  7. ↑ Service, RFE/RL's Bulgarian. "Pro-West Grouping Looks Set To Win Sofia Mayoral Race, While GERB Strong Elsewhere". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
  8. ↑ "BSP may challenge Sofia mayoral election results in court". bnr.bg. Retrieved 2023-11-06.
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