| Bulgaria |
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Politics of Bulgaria take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system.[1] Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Since 1990, Bulgaria has an unstable party system, in the past two decades differently dominated by the post-communist Bulgarian Socialist Party or by the right Union of Democratic Forces and recently by the new right-oriented party - Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria. The US Library of Congress Federal Research Division reported it in 2006 as having generally good freedom of speech and human rights records,[2] while Freedom House listed it as "free" in 2011, giving it scores of 2 for political rights and 2 for civil liberties.[3]
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The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won the first post-communist Assembly elections in 1990 with a small majority. The BSP government formed at that time was brought down by a general strike in late 1990 and replaced by a transitional coalition government. Meanwhile, Zhelyu Zhelev, a communist-era dissident from the new democratic party - Union of Democratic Forces, was elected President by the Assembly in 1990, and in 1992 won Bulgaria's first direct presidential elections. Zhelev served until early 1997. The country's first fully democratic Assembly elections, in November 1991, ushered in another coalition government, led by the winning pro-reform Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), it agreed partnership with the Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) to make majority against the post-communist party (BSP). This coalition collapsed in late 1992, and was succeeded by a technocratic team, probably put forward by the MRF, and governed at the sufferance of the BSP for 2 years. The BSP won convincingly the pre-term elections in December 1994 with close to 50% of the vote, receiving the majority of the seats in the parliament, and remained in office until February 1997, when a populace alienated by the BSP's failed, corrupt government demanded its resignation and called for new elections. A caretaker cabinet appointed by the President served until pre-term parliamentary elections in April 1997, which yielded a landslide victory of 54% for the pro-reform United Democratic Forces, giving to the party the majority of the seats in the parliament.
In 2001, former King Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha returned to power, this time as Prime Minister with his National Movement Simeon II (NMS II). He won 50% of the votes and the majority of the seats in the parliament with just one - 120 out of 240 seats.
Bulgaria did not decriminalize homosexuality until 2002, doing so to conform to European Union norms as it pressed for membership. Nevertheless, polls from the end of 2007 showed that 80% of Bulgarian respondents expressed a negative view of gays and lesbians, with 53% voicing an "extremely negative" view.[4]
The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) won the parliamentary elections in 2005 with 31% of the vote, thus it didn't get the majority of the seats. The Bulgarian Parliament voted "for" BSP's proposal, choosing Sergey Stanishev of the BSP as the new Prime Minister and the MRF as a partner in the coalition government, led by BSP. The vote was 120 against 119. However, the parliament voted against the cabinet's staff by 119 to 117 votes. Finally, on August 15, 2005, the BSP and NMS II formed a stable government, in a partnership with the MRF. This grand coalition comprises the three largest parties. This coalition had a large majority in the parliament with 169 of the 240 deputies.
Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007.[5]
On the parliamentary elections in 2009 the personalistic party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) has won the elections with 40% of the votes, securing 116 seats out of 240, which enabled it to form a cabinet of the minority. Subsequently, after some inner conflicts of the smaller party groups, now the party of Boyko Borisov has a majority in the unicameral parliament.
| Office | Name | Party | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| President | Georgi Parvanov | Socialist Party | 22 January 2002 |
| President-elect | Rosen Plevneliev | Citizens for European Development | 22 January 2012 |
| Prime Minister | Boyko Borisov | Citizens for European Development | 27 July 2009 |
The president of Bulgaria (Georgi Parvanov since 22 January 2002) is directly elected for a 5-year term with the right to one re-election. The president serves as the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. The President's main duties are to schedule elections and referendums, represent Bulgaria abroad, conclude international treaties, and head the Consultative Council for National Security. The President may return legislation to the National Assembly for further debate—a kind of veto—but the legislation can be passed again by an absolute majority vote.
The Council of Ministers is the principal organ of the executive branch. It is usually formed by the majority party in Parliament, if one exists, or by the largest party in Parliament along with coalition partners. Chaired by the Prime Minister, it is responsible for carrying out state policy, managing the state budget, and maintaining law and order. The Council must resign if the National Assembly passes a vote of no confidence in the Council or the Prime Minister or rejects a vote of confidence. The current government is made of the centre-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian unicameral parliament, the National Assembly or Narodno Sabranie, consists of 240 deputies who are elected for 4-year-terms by popular vote. The votes are for party or coalition lists of candidates for each of the 28 administrative divisions. A party or coalition must garner a minimum of 4% of the vote in order to enter parliament. Parliament is responsible for enactment of laws, approval of the budget, scheduling of presidential elections, selection and dismissal of the prime minister and other ministers, declaration of war, deployment of troops outside of Bulgaria, and ratification of international treaties and agreements.
Summary of the 2011 Bulgarian presidential election results
| Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| Rosen Plevneliev | Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria | 1,349,380 | 40.11 | 1,698,136 | 52.58 | |
| Ivaylo Kalfin | Bulgarian Socialist Party | 974,300 | 28.96 | 1,531,193 | 47.42 | |
| Meglena Kuneva | Initiative committee | 470,808 | 14.00 | |||
| Volen Siderov | National Union Attack | 122,466 | 3.64 | |||
| Stefan Solakov | National Front for Salvation of Bulgaria | 84,205 | 2.50 | |||
| Rumen Hristov | Blue Coalition | 65,761 | 1.95 | |||
| Atanas Semov | Order, Law and Justice | 61,797 | 1.84 | |||
| Svetoslav Vitkov | Initiative committee | 54,125 | 1.61 | |||
| Sali Ibrayim | National Movement Unity | 41,837 | 1.24 | |||
| Krasimir Karakachanov | IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement | 33,236 | 0.99 | |||
| Aleksey Petrov | Initiative committee | 31,613 | 0.94 | |||
| Maria Kapon | United People's Party | 30,665 | 0.91 | |||
| Nikolay Nenchev | Bulgarian Agrarian National Union | 9,827 | 0.29 | |||
| Pavel Chernev | Party for the People of the Nation | 8,081 | 0.24 | |||
| Ventsislav Yosifov | Initiative committee | 7,021 | 0.21 | |||
| Dimitar Kutsarov | Initiative committee | 6,989 | 0.21 | |||
| Andrey Chorbanov | Bulgarian Democratic Unity | 6,340 | 0.19 | |||
| Nikolay Vasilev | Initiative committee | 5,633 | 0.17 | |||
| Total valid votes | 3,364,084 | 100 | 3,229,329 | 100 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 229,844 | 6.40 | 104,837 | 3.14 | ||
| Votes cast (turnout: resp. 52.11% and 48.06%) | 3,593,751 | 100 | 3,334,169 | 100 | ||
| Registered voters | 6,896,216 | - | 6,937,748 | - | ||
| Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria | ||||||
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| Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria | 1,678,641 | 39.72 | new | 116 | new | |
| Coalition for Bulgaria | 748,147 | 17.70 | −13.3 | 40 | −42 | |
| Movement for Rights and Freedoms | 610,521 | 14.45 | +1.7 | 38 | +4 | |
| National Union Attack | 395,733 | 9.36 | +1.2 | 21 | ±0 | |
| Blue Coalition | 285,662 | 6.76 | −7.3 | 15 | −22 | |
| Order, Law and Justice | 174,582 | 4.13 | new | 10 | new | |
| Lider | 137,795 | 3.26 | new | — | — | |
| National Movement for Stability and Progress | 127,470 | 3.02 | −16.9 | — | −53 | |
| The Greens | 21,841 | 0.52 | new | — | — | |
| For the Homeland | 11,524 | 0.27 | — | — | — | |
| Bulgarian Left Coalition | 8,762 | 0.21 | — | — | — | |
| Union of the Patriotic Forces | 6,426 | 0.15 | — | — | — | |
| Social Democrats | 5,004 | 0.12 | — | — | — | |
| Bulgarian New Democracy | 3,813 | 0.09 | — | — | — | |
| The Other Bulgaria | 3,455 | 0.08 | — | — | — | |
| Party of the Liberal Alternative and Peace | 2,828 | 0.07 | — | — | — | |
| Union of the Bulgarian Patriots | 2,175 | 0.05 | — | — | — | |
| National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland | 1,874 | 0.04 | — | — | — | |
| Total valid votes | 4,226,194 | 100.00 | — | 240 | — | |
| Invalid votes | 97,387 | 2.25 | — | — | — | |
| Votes cast (turnout: 60.20%) | 4,323,581 | 100.00 | — | — | — | |
| Registred voters | 7,129,965 | — | — | — | — | |
| Source: Electoral Commission of Bulgaria | ||||||
The Bulgarian judicial system consists of regional, district and appeal courts, as well as a Supreme Court of Cassation. In addition, there is a Supreme Administrative Court and a system of military courts. The Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court as well as the Prosecutor General are elected by a qualified majority of two-thirds from all the members of the Supreme Judicial Council and are appointed by the President of the Republic. The Supreme Judicial Council is in charge of the self-administration and organisation of the Judiciary.
A qualified majority of two-thirds of the membership of the Supreme Judicial Council elects the Presidents of the Supreme Court of Cassation and of the Supreme Administrative Court, as well as the Prosecutor General, from among its members; the President of the Republic then appoints those elected.
The Supreme Judicial Council has charge of the self-administration and organization of the Judiciary.
The Constitutional Court supervises the review of the constitutionality of laws and statutes brought before it, as well as the compliance of these laws with international treaties that the Government has signed. Parliament elects the 12 members of the Constitutional Court by a two-thirds majority. The members serve for a nine-year term.
The territory of the Republic of Bulgaria subdivides into provinces and municipalities. Bulgaria has 28 provinces, each headed by a provincial governor appointed by the government. In addition, the country includes 263 municipalities.
The Constitutional Court of Bulgaria is in charge of reviewing the constitutionality of laws and statutes brought before it, as well as the compliance of these laws with international treaties that the Government has signed. The 12 members of the Constitutional Court serve a nine-year term. Parliament elects 1/3 of them.
The territory of the Republic of Bulgaria is divided into provinces and municipalities. In all Bulgaria has 28 provinces, each headed by a provincial governor appointed by the government. In addition, there are 263 municipalities.
Political pressure groups and leaders:
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