Bulgarian snap parliamentary election, take four!

Today (April 2nd) citizens of 🇧🇬 Bulgaria go to polls to vote in parliamentary elections… again. These are **fifth** elections in Bulgaria in two years, after another failure in gathering a government majority.

If you are interested, these are links to our previous threads here: [March 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/mjoipp/bulgarian_parliamentary_election/), [July 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/oi2wj3/bulgarian_parliamentary_election_again/), [November 2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/qt6910/bulgarian_general_elections/) and [October 2022](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/xtd87b/bulgarian_snap_parliamentary_election_take_three/).

Bulgarian parliament (unicameral *Narodno Săbranie*) consists of 240 members (121 needed for majority), elected by closed list proportional representation from 31 multi-member constituencies, with 4% electoral threshold, for a 4-year term.

Relevant parties (lists) taking part in the elections are:

Name|Leader|Position|Oct 2022 result|Recent polling|**Exit poll**|Seats (change)
:–|:–|:–|:–|–:|–:|–:|:–
[We Continue the Change](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Continue_the_Change)+[Democratic Bulgaria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Bulgaria) (PP-DB)|[K. Petkov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiril_Petkov), [A. Vasilev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asen_Vasilev), [H. Ivanov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hristo_Ivanov_(politician\))|centre (liberal)|26.7%|25-27%|TBA|(73)
[GERB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GERB)-[SDS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Democratic_Forces_(Bulgaria\))|[Boyko Borisov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyko_Borisov)|centre-right (conservative)|24.5%|25-26%|TBA|(67)
[DPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_for_Rights_and_Freedoms)|[Mustafa Karadayi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Karadayi)|Turkish minority|13.3%|13-14%|TBA|(36)
[Revival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgarian_political_party/)) (V)|[Kostadin Kostadinov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostadin_Kostadinov_(\politician))|far-right (nationalist, pro-Russia)|9.8%|13-14%|TBA|(27)
[BSP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Socialist_Party)|[Korneliya Ninova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korneliya_Ninova)|centre-left (post-communist, social conservative)|9.0%|7-9%|TBA|(25)
[Bulgarian Rise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Rise) (BV)|[Stefan Yanev](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Yanev)|right-wing (national conservative, pro-Russia)|4.5%|2-4%|TBA|(12)
[Stand Up.bg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_Up.BG)+[Left!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Bulgaria\))|[Maya Manolova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Manolova)|left (social democracy)|1.0%|3-4%|TBA|(-)
[There Is Such People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Is_Such_A_People) (ITN)|[Slavi Trifonov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavi_Trifonov)|centre-right (social conservative)|3.7%|2-3%|TBA|(-)

These are mostly the same contenders, as six months ago (except PP and DB united on one list), with rather similar support.

Turnout in last (October 2022) election was mere **39.3**%.

**Further reading**

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Bulgarian_parliamentary_election)

[Bulgaria Blames Russians for Election Chaos](https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/bulgaria-blames-russians-for-election-chaos/) (Euractiv)

[Battle Heats up in Bulgaria for First Place in Knife-Edge Election](https://balkaninsight.com/2023/03/31/battle-heats-up-in-bulgaria-for-first-place-in-knife-edge-election/) (Balkan Insight)

Of course, we shall leave detailed commentary (and any interesting trivia!) on elections, campaign, and whole situation, to our users.