site.btaBulgaria Votes for 51st National Assembly

Bulgarians are voting for a new Parliament Sunday. These elections were prompted by the failure of the 50th National Assembly, which was elected on June 9, 2024 – less than only five months ago – to form a government.

These are the country's seventeenth national parliamentary elections since the start of democratic changes in 1989 and the eleventh to be held before the legislature has served its full four-year term in office.

According to the final electoral rolls, 6,601,262 voters will cast their ballots at 12,879 voting sections in Bulgaria and 719 abroad.

In Bulgaria, the polls open at 7:00 a.m. and are declared closed by the Central Election Commission at 9:00 p.m. for the country's territory.

Of the overseas polling sections, the earliest to open were those in Oakland and Christchurch, New Zealand, at 10:00 p.m. Bulgarian time on October 26 (7:00 a.m. on October 27 local time). The last to close will be the section in San Francisco, California: at 6:00 a.m. Bulgarian time on October 28 (7:00 p.m. on October 27 local time).

The 240 seats in the next Parliament are contested by 4,855 candidates (1,377 women and 3,478 men), or 20.2 per seat. 1,176 candidates are running in two constituencies.

A total of 28 entities have been registered for participation in the October 27 elections: 19 parties and nine coalitions, plus one independent candidate

Voting is by paper ballot or a voting machine. Machines are available in voting sections with over 300 voters.

Machine voting is available in 9,353 domestic sections out of a total of 12,879 and in 157 of the 719 overseas sections.