Bulgaria

The members of the unicameral parliament (the National Assembly) are directly elected in an open-list regional proportional representation system, at least every 4 years. The number of members has been 240 since 1991.

The representatives are elected in 31 multi-member districts. The simple quota (Hare quota) and method of largest remainders are used for the distribution of seats, which ensures a high degree of proportionality. There is a national legal electoral threshold of 4%, and parties meaning parties below this share of the vote cannot win seats from the constituencies even if they would have enough votes locally.

Voters may mark one candidate on their chosen list ('preferential vote'), and with this vote they can influence the order of the party list locally. It is possible to vote for a 'none of the above' option. These votes do not count towards the threshold calculation.

Interesting fact: In the October 2024 election, a party narrowly missed the threshold with 3.999% of the votes (passed by 21 votes). Later, as a result of legal appeals against the election, the Constitutional Court ruled that the party had still reached the threshold according to the new results, so the mandates of 16 representatives were terminated. 

The president (head of state) is directly elected for a 5-year term in a two-round system and may be re-elected once, so the same person can be president for a maximum of 2 terms in total, i.e. 10 years (the two terms do not have to be consecutive). The first round is held via a single-choice vote and the two candidates with the most votes advance to the second round if no one receives a majority (more least half of the valid votes, 50%+) in the first round.

MEPs from Bulgaria are elected every 5 years (at the same time as in the other EU member states). The entire country forms one constituency, in which 17 MEPs were elected in 2024. Due to "degressive proportionality", Bulgarian voters have more representatives per capita than the EU average.

The main principle in the election of the Parliament (within the countries) is proportionality: by default, only a proportional system can be used, but beyond this, the member states decide for themselves what type. Bulgaria, like most member states, uses an open-list proportional system. This means that voters can vote not only for a party list, but also for a candidate on the list, thus allowing them the chance to collectively change the predetermined order of the candidates. The allocation of seats between parties is done using the simple quota (Hare quota) and the largest remainder method. There is no legal electoral threshold, but in practice (due to the 17 seats) a minimum of about 5% is required to obtain a seat.

The minimum age for active suffrage (the right to vote) is 18 years, and for passive suffrage (standing for election) is 21 years. Voting is legally mandatory (but not enforced in practice), voting at embassies is possible (but only from other EU member states), however, postal voting, online voting or proxy voting are not possible.

This is the description of the electoral system of Bulgaria as of 2026.04.20 on Electoral Knowledgebase. Sources and further information on this topic:

• 2024 European Parliament elections: National rules (European Parliament)

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