At stake in this election:

• 240 seats in the National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President Georgi PARVANOV
• Head of Government: Prime Minister Sergei Dmitrievich STANISHEV
• Assembly: Bulgaria has a unicameral National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie) with 240 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.
• Prime Minister is elected by parliament.
• In the National Assembly (Narodno Sabranie), 209 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms and 31 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms.***

*** There are 31 multi-member districts in the list tier. There is a national threshold of 4 percent. Each MMD is also a single-member district in the nominal tier. Each voter gets two votes. Candidates in the list tier may stand in a maximum of two districts. Candidates in the nominal tier may stand in one district only.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Coalition: Coalition for Bulgaria / Koalicija za Balgarija (KzB)*
  • Leader: Sergei STANISHEV
  • Seats won in this election: 40
• Party: Movement for Rights and Freedoms / Dvizhenie za prava i svobodi (DPS)
  • Leader: Ahmed DOGAN
  • Seats won in this election: 38
• Party: Others
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria / Grazhdani za evropeysko razvitie na Balgariya (GERB)
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 116
• Party: National Union Attack / Natsionalen sayuz "Ataka" (Ataka)
  • Leader: Volen SIDEROV
  • Seats won in this election: 21
  • Seats won in last election: 0
• Coalition: Blue Coalition / Sinyata koalitsia
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 15
• Party: Order, Lawfulness, Justice / Red, zakonnost i spravedlivost (RZS)
  • Leader: Atanas SEMOV
  • Seats won in this election: 10
• Party: Lider
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: National Movement for Stability and Progress
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: The Greens
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: For the Homeland
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Alliance: Bulgarian Left Coalition
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense"
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0
• Party: Social Democrats
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 0

Population and number of registered voters

• Population: 7,444,443 (2009)
• Registered voters: 7,129,965 (2009)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 3,819,867 (2009)

·         Is Bulgaria a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (17 July 1980)

·         Has Bulgaria ratified CEDAW: Yes (8 February 1982)

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes 

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 50 (following the 2009 election)

·         Human Development Index Position: 59 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Low (2014)

Disability Data:

·         Is Bulgaria a signatory to CRPD: Yes (27 September 2007)

·         Has Bulgaria ratified CRPD: Yes (22 March 2012)

·         Population with a disability: 1,116,666 (est.)